SLIFF 2010 Review: HOW I ENDED THIS SUMMER

Review by Stephen Jones

If there’s one thing that HOW I ENDED THIS SUMMER knows how to do really well, it’s to take its time. Whole passages go by without storyline progression; events are allowed to unfold without having to rush to the next development. There’s time for the characters to react and recover when something happens. There’s also time to enjoy the scenery. One shot late in the
film of a character chasing after a helicopter is one wide, static shot, and it lingers on long after he’s become a speck in the distance. Well before it cuts away, it has become just a shot of the frozen wilderness.

It’s sort of astounding how much breathing room the story is given. The film consists of two characters working at a meteorological station in Russia. Some sections only have the one character; the younger worker, right out of college. He receives a tragic message from the mainland and can’t bring himself to tell his elder counterpart. This leaves much of the film in pointed silence, or with Pavel, the young station worker, having brief, desperate exchanges with the voice on the other end of the radio.

The fact that the film doesn’t rush might seem like a fairly dull selling point, but it bolsters the sense of isolation surrounding the characters, and that is by far the most effective aspect of the film. Even when they seem to have a fairly dire schedule, it seems as though they have nothing but time. It’s so effective at creating the feeling of isolation that I found myself awaiting eagerly when the next radio transmission would be, if only for them to get some meager contact with the mainland.

Unfortunately, and at the risk of saying too much, things take a turn for the bizarre toward the last act of the film. It was such a jarring turn for the characters that it took me out of the film, and it never really recovered. The final payoff, such as it is, steers the film back to the tense, understated feel of the first two thirds of the film, but at that point it’s a bit too late. I was disappointed to see a film with such a fantastic first two acts to shoot itself in the foot like this.

HOW I ENDED THIS SUMMER will play during the 19th Annual Stella Artois St. Louis International Film Festival on Thursday, November 18th at 7:00 pm and Sunday, November 21st at 8:30 pm at the Plaza Frontenac Cinema.