Summerland
IFCSummerland is a quaint, sweet and painfully British film. The cinematic debut from playwright Jessica Swale, Summerland follows Alice Lamb, a reclusive spinster who makes a living writing academic theses on British folklore. Living on the Kent seaside, Alice is ostracized from the rest of the community on her own accord, she focuses on herself and some of the local children even believe that she is a witch. The film finds Alice living through the midst of World War Two, largely unaffected until an evacuee from London arrives at her door.
Gemma Arterton plays Alice and is perfectly commendable in the role. While Alice comes off as a rather unlikeable character on paper, Arterton’s acting makes Alice quite charming. Her sneers and negative demeanour are comedic instead of hateful. One particular scene finds Alice in a grocery store watching a mother explain to her daughter that they don’t have enough coupons to purchase a chocolate bar. Alice takes the chocolate from the young girl’s palms, purchases for herself and saunters out of the store to children’s tears and her smirk. These comedic tones to Arteton’s character cause the audience to better understand her backstory and why Alice acts in the way she does. This understanding makes the relationship between Alice and Frank (Lucas Bond), the boy living with her to escape the Blitz, much more believable. Alice slowly softens herself towards Frank, especially as he takes an interest in her work on British folklore.
Arterton carries Summerland and has amazing chemistry with Lucas Bond. They are a natural pair, and their blossoming friendship comes to be the heart of the film. While Alice initially despises Frank, she does show peeks of kindness as she slowly opens her work and herself to him. Being a child, Frank is pretty one-dimensional but without him, Alice would be missing all of her character development. Along with her friendship with Frank, the rest of Alice’s character is revealed in flashbacks. In beautifully crafted flapper dresses, Alice meets Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s character Vera and the two begin a romantic relationship. While both Arterton and Mbatha-Raw are talented actresses, their romance in Summerland does feel more like a friendship at times. Swale – having also wrote Summerland’s screenplay – fails to dive deeply into their relationship and this, unfortunately, translates into the film. It’s quite a shame, since Swale has previously worked with both Arterton and Mbatha-Raw on her play Nell Gwynn and should have been able to better utilize the pair.
Summerland is not a war film and instead is a romance set against the backdrop of the Second World War. Swale creates a fine, sweet film but it never gets as deep as it should. With the exception of a delicate coming out scene, the ramifications of Alice and Vera’s relationship is never explored. The costumes make it clear that the flashbacks take place in the 1920s, a time where it was illegal to queer in Britain. This is never explored other than a brief line about how some people think being in a same-sex relationship is wicked and a sin. With Gugu Mbatha-Raw being a black woman, there is also the opportunity to explore Vera as a queer black woman that is unfortunately never taken. Vera’s only qualities are that she is Alice’s love interest and that she wants to be a mother. Swale lacks the ability to properly flesh out her queer characters, especially considering the time period they are living through. Another strange writing choice that Swale makes is the addition of a prologue and epilogue of an older Alice (Penelope Wilton) that adds nothing to any of the character arcs. It is an attempt to wrap the story up in a neat little bow but feels shoehorned in as the penultimate ending of the characters in the 1940s is significantly more satisfying.
Summerland is a fine debut from Jessica Swale. The writer-director gives viewers a sweet, sappy story that is heartwarming yet hollow. Summerland does have the elements to make the film a memorable piece of queer cinema, but without a proper in-depth exploration of Swale’s lesbian characters, the film has an air of emptiness that will make it forgettable.