This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
Shaun: Robert Carlyle
Daz: Steve Evets
Katy: Rachel Blake
Daniel: Michael Socha
Teen Shaun: Sean Kelly
Teen Daz: Jo Doherty
Young Katy: Joanna Tulej
Mr Biggs: Colin Tarrant
Mrs Biggs: Sharon Bower
"Summer" trailer
Summer
pin-points the best and worst summers in the life of Shaun (Robert Carlyle, one of my favourite actors, because
he does so much work but manages to make each character stand-out and doesn't tie himself down to any one stereotype
or particular role, even though a lot of media reviews tend to find it difficult not to mention the brilliant
Trainspotting at least once).
As the film begins, we learn that he shares a house with his wheelchair-bound friend, Daz (Steve Evets), and
his son Daniel (Michael Socha). Daz has cirrhosis of the liver and diabetes, with not a long time left to live.
Inbetween working at the petrol station, Shaun looks after him as a full-time carer. They're life-long friends, but
there also appears to be an element of guilt in the fact he does this.
Shaun is a man who's never made much of his life - and nor has Daz, but their childhood best friend Katy (Rachael
Blake) has done very well for herself, now living in the city as a bigshot lawyer with an open-top sports car and
little interest in seeing either of them again as her parents confirm (her father being played in a brief role by
ex-Bill star Colin Tarrant). However, he needs to tell her about Daz's condition so that's one aspect to be resolved.
There's a number of flashbacks to explain how they spent their lives as teenagers (approx 16 years old - or 20 in the case of Katy,
given the size of Joanna Tulej's bikini top-busting assets), and occasionally as children, as well as some bizarre but
cleverly done dream/imaginary sequences as Carlyle thinks back to happier times during his best summer ever when they
were teens. One dream was most striking in that it featured the teen Katy (Joanna
Tulej) and present-day Shaun,
and this particularly struck a chord in that it plays on the thoughts one might have that they can go back in time and
just redo things that bit better and lead to an improved outcome. Of course, you have to come crashing back to reality
and isn't that a total pisser?
At this point I'll ignore the fact that while, in flashbacks, all three of the lead characters are portrayed as being
of the same age when, in real life, Robert Carlyle was born 10 years before Rachael Blake.
King Creosote: Home in a Sentence
Summer is a brilliant low-budget film that gets the best out of Carlyle and Evets, even with little in the way
of actual plot but just by exploiting the tragedy of the situation they both find themselves in, which is particularly
brought out in an explosive argument after Daz wants to know when he's going to get a shower, since Shaun is responsible
for *all* aspects of his care needs. Rachael Blake doesn't
have an awful lot to do, though, and certainly doesn't make half as much of an impression as Joanna Tulej's teenage
equivalent. The other youngsters in the cast also show great promise for the future.
That said, despite the fact that the film reaches a satisfying conclusion and answers the questions it sets out along
the way, it's difficult to recommend this title as a purchase over a rental because it's like an excellent TV film without
much in the way of supplemental material. There's just a trailer (1:51, anamorphic cropped to 16:9), which does give
out a number of the film's key moments so, even though I've added a link above, I'd recommend you not see it prior to
renting the film - which you must do immediately. Well... once you've got to the end of this review. And as long as the
rental shop's still open (presuming you're using them and not an online rental service)
I'll also point out one annoying thing which is where the layer
change was placed - at a crucial moment as Shaun walks out of his school (41.27), since the intense moody background
music is rudely interrupted. This is something that happened on my Samsung Blu-ray player, my Xbox 360's HD-DVD player,
the Xbox 360 itself, but never with my original Xbox which manages to store enough in its buffer to eliminate any interruption
in a layer change. That's progression in technology for you(!)
The film itself is presented in anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen and shows off excellent camerawork and frame composition.
It was shot with the Super 35 format which allows for a decent 16:9 open matte print to be struck, even though the
intended cinema ratio is 2.35:1, so it shouldn't suffer if it ends up getting shown on the BBC where they haven't got
much of a clue about 2.35:1 films. However, the print itself is mostly quite softer than it should be and, while the
Dolby Digital 5.1 gets across dialogue and ambience as intended, it's certainly not a demo disc. Thankfully, there
are subtitles, which are a necessity due to the occasional use of strong Scots accents as well as some rushed words.
There are just 12 chapters to the movie, which could use a few more over its 80-minute running time. Annoyingly, this
is one of those DVDs which features pre-menu trailers, the names of which I'm not going to list here as we're not in
the age of rental video, thankyou. These should be in the extras menu. The main menu music is the closing music, the
wonderful Home in a Sentence by King Creosote, which can be viewed on the above Youtube link from when he appeared
on Jools Holland's "Later".
PS. I also spotted when I checked IMDB, that Robert Carlyle shares my birthday of 14th April. I'll be 37 this year
(whereas he'll be 48), but I can see 40 coming towards me like a brick wall at the end of the motorway (grrr!) :)
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
