Summer's Children

Summer's Children is a compelling, thought-provoking, and entertaining action/drama about Steve, a young man in his 20's, who tries to leave his lovestruck sister, Jennie, and his unstable home for a new life in the city, but he's off to a bad start when he crashes his Mustang and loses his memory of a troubled past. The opening scene is brilliant, as the lights from a tow truck lead Steve's Mustang allegorically through the seven circles of hell. The story moves along briskly as Steve gets a job as an auto mechanic and enters into a new relationship, but his sister Jennie pursues him in a cat and mouse game through the city's underground. Well-integrated flashbacks from Steve's past contrast with his current pursuit of Jennie, as the director captures the stark world of seedy bars, fleabag rooming houses and hobo hangouts. Kohanyi elicits strong performances from his cast, such as Don Francks, who does a captivating interpretation of Albert, a bookie who is known as The Professor. Summer's Children is a sensitively directed drama, unusual for its delicate and controversial subject matter.

The main reason why I saw SUMMER'S CHILDREN is because it's Michael Ironside's fourth movie of the 147 he made to date but he appeared for only one minute as a pimp that shoves the lead in a closet. Regardless of this I am still glad that I saw this movie because it was so odd (and six months before I saw SLEEPWALK that is probably the king of odd movies) and yet so full of nostalgia because it looked a lot like one of those TV movies from the 1970s.

Steve Linton is a young man on his 20s that has an incestuous relationship with his sister Jennie and wants to end this along with leaving his home in the outskirts of a town for a new one in the big city but he fails especially after crashing his Mustang and losing his memory. Then Steve gets a job as an auto mechanic and starts a relationship with Kathy (Kate Lynch) but as Jennie finds out about this she pursues Steve in the city's underground including dirty bars and rooming houses and then Steve returns to Jennie, ending the movie with a scene of the two hugging.

The direction by Julius Kohanyi is nice even tho the movie looks like a TV movie (in fact according to IMDB it had a limited distribution in Canadian theaters and it was mostly aired on CBC Television) and the acting by Thomas Hauff was good tho he never became an household name because he played the part of a troubled young man that wants to stop the incenstuous relationship with his sister and start a new life in the big city only to return crying to his sister well. The cinematography was amazing considering its budget, with the lights in the night scenes before the car accident that turn in some circles and in the bars and rooming houses you can easily feel the dirt of those places.

Overall, a forgotten movie that I would recommend not only because of the acting but also for the subject matter even tho is very controversial (and I am sure that it must have stirred at least some folks back in 1979).

A prime cause of this film's failure is its very disjointed screenplay, which bedevils staunch efforts of some fine Canadian actors, in particular: Don Francks, Kate Lynch, Patricia Collins and Michael Ironside. The plot relates some sort of ostensible attempt by a young man to recover that portion of his memory lost due to a road collision, but a woefully low budget controls the action more than does the director. Whoever edited this misplay should be called to account for some gratingly inadequate footage, including that in several scenes wherein the players' dialogue is drowned by traffic and other extraneous noises. The inner elements of the flashback saturated script incorporate a wide range of themes, including detection, filial loyalty, and sexual vagaries (among which: incest), but a huge gap remains between these and their development.