Summer

DVDfever.co.uk – Summer DVD reviewDom Robinson reviews

SummerDistributed by
Contender Home Entertainment

• Cert:
• Running time: 80 minutes
• Year: 2008
• Released: March 2009
• Region(s): 2, PAL
• Chapters: 12
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: English
• Widescreen: 2.35:1
• 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
• Macrovision: Yes
• Disc Format: DVD 9
• Price: £15.99
• Extras:Trailer
• Vote and comment on this film:View Comments
  

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  Director:

  Kenneth Glenaan

  (Faintheart, Goodbye Cruel World, Venkel’s Syndrome)

Producers:

Camilla Bray

Screenplay:

Hugh Ellis

Music:

Stephen McKeon

Cast :

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

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“Summer” trailerSummerpin-points the best and worst summers in the life of Shaun (Robert Carlyle, one of my favourite actors, becausehe does so much work but manages to make each character stand-out and doesn’t tie himself down to any one stereotypeor particular role, even though a lot of media reviews tend to find it difficult not to mention the brilliantTrainspotting at least once).

As the film begins, we learn that he shares a house with his wheelchair-bound friend, Daz (Steve Evets), andhis 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, butthere 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 (RachaelBlake) has done very well for herself, now living in the city as a bigshot lawyer with an open-top sports car andlittle interest in seeing either of them again as her parents confirm (her father being played in a brief role byex-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 butcleverly done dream/imaginary sequences as Carlyle thinks back to happier times during his best summer ever when theywere 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 andjust redo things that bit better and lead to an improved outcome. Of course, you have to come crashing back to realityand 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 beingof the same age when, in real life, Robert Carlyle was born 10 years before Rachael Blake.

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King Creosote:
Home in a SentenceSummer is a brilliant low-budget film that gets the best out of Carlyle and Evets, even with little in the wayof actual plot but just by exploiting the tragedy of the situation they both find themselves in, which is particularlybrought out in an explosive argument after Daz wants to know when he’s going to get a shower, since Shaun is responsiblefor *all* aspects of his care needs. Rachael Blake doesn’thave an awful lot to do, though, and certainly doesn’t make half as much of an impression as Joanna Tulej’s teenageequivalent. 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 alongthe way, it’s difficult to recommend this title as a purchase over a rental because it’s like an excellent TV film withoutmuch in the way of supplemental material. There’s just a trailer (1:51, anamorphic cropped to 16:9), which does giveout 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 torenting the film – which you must do immediately. Well… once you’ve got to the end of this review. And as long as therental 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 layerchange was placed – at a crucial moment as Shaun walks out of his school (41.27), since the intense moody backgroundmusic 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 interruptionin 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 theintended cinema ratio is 2.35:1, so it shouldn’t suffer if it ends up getting shown on the BBC where they haven’t gotmuch of a clue about 2.35:1 films. However, the print itself is mostly quite softer than it should be and, while theDolby Digital 5.1 gets across dialogue and ambience as intended, it’s certainly not a demo disc. Thankfully, thereare 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, thisis one of those DVDs which features pre-menu trailers, the names of which I’m not going to list here as we’re not inthe age of rental video, thankyou. These should be in the extras menu. The main menu music is the closing music, thewonderful Home in a Sentence by King Creosote, which can be viewed on the above Youtube link from when he appearedon 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!) 🙂

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALLReview copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2009.View the discussion thread.blog comments powered by Disqus= 0) {query += ‘url’ + i + ‘=’ + encodeURIComponent(links[i].href) + ‘&’;}}document.write(”);})();//]]]]>]]>

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