Review: Summering

Image courtesy of Bleecker Street.

James Ponsoldt's "Summering" has a fair amount of dreamy atmosphere and a lot of good intentions - so it's a shame that it's not an entirely successful endeavor. The film's plot plays like a female-centric version of "Stand By Me" - so much so, in fact, that there are only two scenes I can recall featuring (alive) men or boys, and those scenes all exist for the purpose of making a specific impact on the story at the moment of their arrival - but it also has an end-of-summer vibe and even a dash of melancholic but hypnotic visuals paired with audio cues that reminded me of "The Virgin Suicides," although this film is significantly less tragic or dark as that picture.

As the film opens, four girls - narrator Lia Barnett (Daisy), who lives with her cop mother (Lake Bell) and has an absent father; Lola (Sanai Victoria), who has an artist mother; Dina (Madalen Mills), whose tight-knit family watches "Wheel of Fortune" together; and Mari (Eden Grace Redfield), who is the smallest of the group and whose mother is a helicopter parent - are enjoying the last days of August as they privately worry whether their friendship will carry over into middle school.

One day, when walking in a secluded area where they have built a shrine to a site they refer to as Terabithia, they discover a dead man's body. But rather than call the police or their mothers - whom they know will ask them a whole lot of questions - they decide they want to find out who this man is before they turn to their parents or the authorities.

The mystery of the dead body is really a distraction in a story about four young girls whose mothers are the strongest presences in their lives, and who are about to - as they are told by relatives - embark on what could be among the worst years of their lives: middle school. Each member of the group worries whether they will remain friends, especially since Mari is going to a private school, while Dina is told by her older sister that if she hasn't figured out who the "mean girl" is in her group yet, it might be her.

The scenes involving the girls' investigation into the dead body are a bit slight - and a visit to a bar to quiz the bartender and customers some struck me as slightly unrealistic and a little too precious for its own good. The girls eventually make some headway into their investigation, but that storyline is ultimately among the least interesting.

"Summering" shines more when it focuses on the relationships between the girls - and their relationships with their mothers. There's a looseness to the scenes not focusing on the main plot point that makes for a mostly enjoyable hang-out vibe, but it is occasionally interrupted by the dead body drama and - even less necessary - sequences during which each of the girls imagine they see the dead man's ghost. No, this is not a horror movie or ghost story in any sense, so those fleeting moments were probably best left for the cutting room floor. Some other unfortunate script choices include the introduction of a gun and a visit to the "dark web" - don't ask.

Ponsoldt's filmography has mostly included mid-range indie dramas - his David Foster Wallace picture, "The End of the Tour," was good and "The Spectacular Now" was particularly memorable - but his latest feels like a lower-budget effort similar to his earliest work. The director has said that he made this film so that he could do something his daughter could watch - and the picture is a noble effort with some elements to recommend. It doesn't reach the bar set by its most obvious inspiration - "Stand By Me" - but it's not half bad either.