Review of Summer Hours (2008) by Andrea M — 03 Aug 2009

Another film that could only have been made in Europe. It's remarkably grown-up and fluidly shot. It's about a house, and the expensive things in the house, and the smart, privileged, but flawed people associated with the house.

And then the matriarch dies. And two of her three children don't want the house or its contents. And I don't know--maybe this picture should be categorized as fantasy, but how refreshing to watch a movie about siblings treating each other civilly, respectfully, in the wake of loss and disagreement.

Much attention is paid to the mundane operations of dealing with valuable assets, yet there is a deeply human point made by it, epitomized in a scene in which a singular art nouveau desk is transplanted to a museum.

The son who wanted to keep the house and its affects goes to look at it with his wife, and they discuss its new home with a guarded sense of remove. Yet we, the audience, look at the desk and think what a beautiful object, and yet notice the richness of its beauty is gone without its homey clutter.

This is a movie about many things, but particularly about art and its practicality. I feel as if there are considerations weighed here that never have been before. But what elevates the film above the realm of the really good is the ending sequence.

The son's children have a teenage party at the now gutted house, without a care for any sense of its history, and after an incredible long single shot--beautifully filmed!--we find out that the oblivious generation actually has a care.

It is extremely moving and utterly surprising. This entire movie is about separating sentiment from objects, but the reminder at the end that sentiment overrides materialism is just spot on. Amazing, really.