SNAP JUDGMENT: MOVIES

My Summer of Love Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski

On a sweltering Yorkshire day, two girls, one on horseback and the other pushing her scooter, meet in a field. Working-class Mona (Natalie Press), who lives above a pub with her born-again, ex-con brother Phil (Paddy Considine), is lonely, impulsive, smart but rough around the edges. The haughty, self-dramatizing Tamsin (Emily Blunt) is spending the summer in her family's Tudor manor. In Pawlikowski's seductive, quietly spellbinding "My Summer of Love," these two needy girls lose themselves in a love affair that has more to do with faith and yearning than reality. Press and Blunt are major discoveries: in this sly and wonderfully atmospheric gem, they conjure up the role-playing raptures of youth with perfect poetic pitch.