Director Charlie McDowell invites us on a quiet family vacation in his feature, The Summer Book. We are joined by Sophia, a young girl, who serves as the point of view for the picture, as well as her father (Anders Danielsen Lie) and her grandmother (Glenn Close) as they escape to a family cottage on a Finnish archipelago. We feel the calm and the cozy as we see Sophia (Emily Matthews) ambling around a rustic home, the craggy shoreline of the island, and the piney forests that surround her as she grows and experiences the world around her.

The movie is about growth as much as it’s about loss. Sophia’s mother is missing from the trip and only spoken about in hushed tones for the beginning of the film. As Sophia explores her grandmother tells her about her father’s adventures in and around the cottage when he was her age. Sophia’s at a turning point, the moment that she starts to have her own thoughts, ideas, opinions, and she’s going through all of this having lost her mom. She’s six, starting to form opinions, beginning to realize how to interact with the world. She is also stubborn and unruly occasionally, as any six year old would be. She makes a foolish wish for a storm as the family is heading out via boat to look at a lighthouse on a different island, and when the storm comes she is wracked with guilt. She is after all, going to make mistakes as she grows up, she’s going to wish for things she regrets.

Glenn Close’s performance as Grandmother is one of patience and kindness, while also trying to prepare her grandaughter for a world without her mother. The unsaid part of the story is also that there will be further loss. As Sophia is entering into life, ready to experience it and fill herself with knowledge, Grandmother is ending her life. Her mind is not as sharp as it once was, she forgets things. She speaks to Sophia about how she no longer remembers what it was like to sleep in a tent anymore. Sophia happily explains how it feels to be so close to the noises of the outside, and so tenderly seperated by the thin fabric of the tent.

The Summer Book is a lullaby of a film. Not unlike another coming of age vacation film, Aftersun, it’s wrestling with one of those pivotal moments when we begin to become the people that we will exist as in the world. The Summer Book is just much more broad in its approach, which makes it simpler, cozier, and more easy to digest, it lacks the impossibly personal touch that other coming of age dramas have. It’s not that it’s ineffective, it’s just that it doesn’t seem to be trying to tackle as many heady topics.

It’s a beautiful looking movie, set amidst beautiful scenery. The film was shot in Finland and the islands that Sophia and her family amble around on are breathtaking. Glenn Close is as steady a hand as anyone could ask for, but it’s not quite the kind of splashy performance on might expect from such a seasoned performer. Anders Danielsen Lie is similarly solid in the film, but neither of them have enough to do to jump off the screen. The Summer Book winds up feeling as cozy and cute as many a beautifully set, softly told coming of age story, but lacks the panache to be a true stand out.

3/5