THE SUMMER HOUSE

Rating

Director
Daisy Gili
Screenplay
Ian Beck
Length
12 min.
Starring
Talulah Riley, Robert Pattinson, Laurence Beck, Marianne Brogo, David Burke, Anna Calder-Marshall
Review
I do not have a place on my site to review short films, so here is my review of this recent film starring Twilight‘s Robert Pattinson and Talulah Riley from the 2007 TV series Nearly Famous. The short film was shown at Cannes in 2009, but is just now being released on iTunes exclusively. The short isn’t very exciting and serves little purpose but to sucker Pattinson’s fans into buying the short on iTunes (available today, July 13, 2010).

Summer House has solid shot structure, framing and pacing, but the plot is convoluted, the character development is non-existent and the performances are severely lacking. For being promoted on Pattinson’s presence in the short, it’s surprising just how little screen time he has and how limited his dialogue is and grading his performance would be pointless since he doesn’t have much at all to work with. Riley’s character doesn’t leap off the screen, but sits there wistfully mourning the loss of love, but without giving the audience the ability to feel it. And what the purpose of setting the film against the backdrop of the moon landing is anybody’s guess. It takes up nearly a fifth of the total running time and doesn’t seem to play in thematically.

What’s worse is that being set in 1969, the film feels a bit too modern. The setting isn’t too out of place, but the costumes and speech patterns seem stilted and artificial. Were it not for the constant visual and aural references to the moon landing, it could have been set at any time or place. Despite the Twilight hysteria, I have been supportive of Robert Pattinson if only because he isn’t afraid to take risks. This isn’t exactly risky for him and I wouldn’t say it’s terribly brave, but I refuse to speak ill of him for appearing here, but I would certainly not recommend buying this solely to see Pattinson in action, after all, his few scenes are dark and it’s fairly difficult to tell if it is he or someone else in the role.
Review Written
July 13, 2010