MY SUMMER OF LOVE — *** — Natalie Press, Emily Blunt, Paddy Considine; rated R (profanity, sex, drugs); see Page W2 for theaters.
Mona (Natalie Press) and Tamsin (Emily Blunt) are, at first glance, unlikely friends. When they meet at the beginning of the absorbing hothouse story "My Summer of Love," polished rich girl Tamsin is riding a horse not far from her family's Yorkshire-area estate. The lonely, lovely working-class Mona is on her moped, only it's not really a moped since she can't afford an engine. They speak for a few moments, then part ways.
But it's soon clear that these young women need each other because they have little else. Need is one of the many things on writer-director Pawel Pawlikowski's mind here in this intense mood piece. There's the obvious class differences between the two girls, as well as the way they both seem to be trying on various guises — whether they're aware of it or not — in the search that every adolescent makes toward establishing an identity.
Tamsin tells Mona she should read Nietzsche. Or Freud. God is, after all, dead, she says with the certainty that only the young can possess. Given that Tamsin's sister died of anorexia and she has distinct father issues (she says her dad didn't love her sister enough, but she's really talking about herself), you can see why she has cultivated her cynical persona.
Mona already has issues with God. Her brother (Paddy Considine), just out of prison, has become a born-again Christian and converted the family pub into a spiritual center. "I want my brother," she tells him. "He used to be real." Another character, another persona?
The brother's authenticity may well be an issue. He prowls along the edges of the girls' friendship, which quickly turns into a love affair that's less about sex (though there is that; Pawlikowski is not prudish) than about yearning and the desperate need to believe in something.
Pawlikowski's beautifully shot, sensual movie puts you at the heart of all of these strong emotions and secrets in this self-contained world where rapture and delusion are intertwined, and ambiguity is the name of the game. You won't forget these girls any time soon.
"My Summer of Love" is rated R for language, sexuality and drug use. Running time: 86 min.