Pavel Pavlikovski directed the bleak, austere 'Last Resort', and was sacked from 'Sylvia' on grounds of having an insufficiently commercial sensitivity.

Now he had made 'My Summer of Love', a nicely observed tale of a teenage lesbian romance. As in 'Last Resort', Russian-born Pavlikovski paints an enticingly skewed picture of Britain that rings true in spite of its aberrence; and gets good performances out of his cast, especially Paddy Considine as the brother of one of the girls, who could certainly have used more screen-time, though his co-stars Nathalie Press and Emily Blunt are also good. The film steers clear of cliché, and has some dryly funny dialogue, but what it lacks is a sense of time as a continuum: it feels like a semi-random sampling of its characters' lives, and although there is a clear plot it's hidden in the background, apparent only later. In some ways, this is also true to life, but it also means that the film remains low-key right up to the moment of its suddenly dramatic conclusion. Pavlikovski also seems surprisingly keen on static location shots (before we see the characters inside of a house, we always see the house from outside),

which jars slightly given the film's general artistic merits. Distinctive, and well-worth watching, 'My Summer of Love' isn't quite a great film; but it is an interesting effort from a director committed to representing life in the ways that Hollywood never does.

Mona (Natalie Press) is hurt after getting dumped. Her brother Phil (Paddy Considine) is her only family. He is a reformed criminal and a born-again Christian. He runs his congregation out of his pub. Mona befriends rich girl Tamsin (Emily Blunt) who is haunted by her sister Sadie who died from anorexia. The two girls' friendship grows into a sexual relationship. Tamsin is furious at her father and his secretary who is cheating with him. Phil leads his congregation to plant a wooden cross on top of the hill. Tamsin starts flirting with him.

These are three terrific young actors on the rise. This feels more like a bright breezy lesbian romance at first. It turns into something different but it never gets dark enough. The Tamsin character needs more chaos. It would help if they do something more dangerous. It's a movie of a manipulative female but the manipulations are more like emotional game playing.

One of the things playing under the surface of "My Summer of Love" is the disparity in class and privilege between Mona and Tamsin. When we first meet them, Tamsin tells Mona she has been expelled from school. As a rich girl bored and with nothing to do, Tamsin accepts Mona as a pretty object, but we know from the beginning nothing is going to come about their love for one another. Rather, it appears that love is what Mona feels for the rich girl, not the other way around.

Paul Pavlikowsky's take on the Helen Cross' novel makes for an interesting film that on the surface seems to be an idyllic love between two teen age girls, when in reality no one seems to see the cruelty that Tamsin exerts in the more naive Mona. Tamsin lies about a sister without no shame; that same sister appears at the last moment in the film to ask Mona to return what she perceives as a stolen blouse, humiliating Mona even more. After all, Tamsin is going back to yet another school for rich girls while Mona has to stay in the small village with a broken heart that will not heal. Tamsin, in retrospect is a cool and calculating young woman who has no scruples or much less feels remorse for leading Mona to believe they will stay together forever.

The third main character of the story is the enigmatic Phil, Mona's brother. He does a complete change by joining an evangelical sect and he has left the pub go out of business. Phil is another troubled soul that has no problem at the end renouncing his ties to the religious group that has taken over his pub, and his life. While Phil seems to care for his sister Mona, he is a distant man, in spite of his newly found religiosity. Where he should have been kind and loving, he grows distant and into himself.

The three main characters in "My Summer of Love" are well drawn. Natalie Press gives a fine account of Mona, the more naive of the two girls. She is an unsophisticated girl who has no social graces and is completely dazzled by the more savvy Tamsin. Emily Blunt, a beautiful young actress is perfect as Tamsin, a manipulator, who will have Mona believe that she truly cares for her, when in reality, she is only amusing herself while confined to the summer house in the country. Paddy Considine does a good job as the sullen Phil, the man who finds religion and then abandons it.

The film, under the fine direction of Mr. Pavlikowsky needs the viewer's attention to see the nuances under the story unfolding in front us.