Review of Something Like Summer (2017) by Morra C — 20 Jul 2018

It's a shame, I absolutely love the book series, but this movie is a disaster. Everything is great and true to the spirit of the original, but two choices ruin the entire thing. First, Ben Bentley, the main character, is terribly miscast. He's grating and it made me absolutely hate the character. He's the weakest character in the movie, which consequently makes everyone else look idiotic for being in love with such a twit. It's as if Grant Davis believes he's acting in a Disney Channel movie but everyone else realizes they're in a John Hughes movie. When Davis is off-screen (which isn't often enough), everyone else in the cast gets to rise to the level the movie could've been, and it's dissapointing when he returns. They altered the other main characters to suit the film, and both Davi Santos and Ben Baur soar in the film, so you wonder why they couldn't have tweaked the Bentley character to make him worthy of their affections. You watch to see Santos and Baur duke it out for a guy that's below both of their levels.

The second unfortunate choice was to turn the film into a musical. The thing is, for the most part, Davis is the only one who sings. This is probably why his whole performance feels out of sync with the rest of the cast. They're in two different movies with the same plot. Davis is in "Cabaret", everyone else is in a light-hearted "Call Me By Your Name" romance. I've read the book series multiple times and I honestly didn't recall music being that important in the book at all, so it's a complete distraction.

I reiterate, I wanted to love this movie. I love the book series, and it could've been so good. But instead, it was this. Ugh. It's never good when it feels like a chore to watch a movie.