The Summer Book
**Seen at the 2025 Atlanta Film Festival
I don’t intend to sound cynical about getting more Glenn Close performances, but a film like “The Summer Book” has the feel of something where she’s just trying to get that elusive Oscar. This is not to say she doesn’t deserve an Oscar- she should have won one years ago- but at this point, it feels like an honorary Oscar will be in her future. But this ultimately does not have anything to do with “The Summer Book,” or her performance in it.
I have not read the novel by Tove Jansson, but the film it was adapted to is quiet, ponderous and more than a little familiar. We follow a family on a summer trip to an isolated island on the Gulf of Finland. It is a father (Anders Danielsen Lie), his daughter Sophia (Emily Matthews) and her grandmother (Close). The Sophia’s mother has passed away, and this appears to be the first time they’ve gotten away since. There is a family friend and another family that they come across, but for the most part, it is just them. Dad puts himself into his work, leaving mostly just Sophia and her grandmother. They share walks, go on boat rides, and do some camping and crafts together.
There’s something to be said about a movie that wants to observe life lived rather than manufacturing drama to be worked through. Charlie McDowell’s film almost feels like a documentary of these lives with how it follows this situation. The performances by Lie and Matthews especially reflect that, probably in large part because we are not as familiar with them as we are Close. For Close, we know who she is, and who she isn’t, and her work here is fine, especially with Matthews. There is a moment late in the film where the grandmother and Sophia are talking about camping, and Sophia says something that allows her to remember what it was like to camp as a child. It’s a moment of clarity and remembrance that was moving to watch Close embrace. There are other moments where we think something specific will happen, but it never does, and the more I reflect on that, the more I like that choice; it’s something that feels predictable for a story like this, but that it doesn’t makes one feel like you could share this with young children, and be able to give them an experience that says, “it’s important to cherish the people, and moments, in your life while they’re still around.” That’s a nice, surprise lesson to take from a film like this.
