Am emotionally exhausting film about despair. I'm quite sure despair is not the right word, although hope is in short order, and melancholy permeates throughout. It never hits a false note yet is tirelessly discordant. It's about two girls and their summer together, one full of love, lust, deceit, and ultimately disappointment. Mona (Natalie Press) is a girl with no family outside of her "born again" brother. The only other man in her life is an adulterous cretin who has no ambitions for them beyond his own selfish design. Then along comes Tamsin (Emily Blunt in a terrific performance), fresh from boarding school, a dangerously smart, cavalier soul who befriends Mona. But what are Tamsin's intentions? Is she just bored and lonely?
The girls are quite different. Mona is all "what you see is what you get" with her sharp tongue and homeyness. Tamsin is very pretty, but prattles off about Nietzsche, using her intelligence as a defense mechanism to disguise her own woes. Their first kiss, in a creek, is awkward, later, naked together in the emptiness of Mona's summer home, their affection is more natural. But, this isn't a love story, not by the numbers. It's much more than that. And, as the third act draws nearer to its close, its almost difficult to watch as revelations are made, composure is crushed, and even faith itself is questioned. The Yorkshire countryside makes for a beautiful backdrop for a story that itself isn't so glamourous.
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