SUMMER HEAT (ZOMERHITTE)

(The Netherlands – 90 minutes)

Review By Michael Ricciardi

 In this pretty looking film by Dutch director Monique van de Ven, based on a Jan Wolkers novel, a photo-journalist (who always seems to attract danger and tragedy), experiences danger and tragedy while on assignment in Afghanistan. The story resumes one year later, as the photographer (played by Waldemar Torenstra) is still trying to move on with his life, and forget his lost love (hard to do with large color photos of her on the wall). But then he meets a mysterious, slightly older beauty (played by Sophie Hilbrand) and quickly becomes infatuated with her. The woman, of course, is mixed up with some very dangerous people. A sexual romance develops—following her masturbating in front of him—but neither knows if they can trust each other, really. Several more tragic accidents occur, as the handsome photographer gets progressively drawn into his mystery woman’s world.

Summer Heat bills itself as a ‘romantic thriller’, and to be sure, all the stock elements of a good romantic thriller seem to be in place here: a mysterious beautiful woman, an earnest, talented outsider, an enigmatic stranger (who keeps popping up everywhere), a really bad, bad guy with his equally bad henchmen, and a sack full of dope...And yet, the story’s “mystery” is somehow obvious (or unexciting), not utterly predictable really (the were a couple of tense moments), but simply, well, ordinary. Everything that happens here seems perfectly acceptable, and minor questions are resolved in a satisfactory manner. Even the two leads’ flaws (each is perceived by the other as untrustworthy) prove themselves, ultimately, to be useful and necessary. But the ‘thrill’ element in this thriller doesn’t really come through; same is true for the romance, which seems a bit sterile. Seeing this film I was reminded of Dutch food: appealing looks, bland taste.

Summer Heat is not a bad film, but the two dimensionality of the main players, the superficial script (I have not read the novel), and the failure of the film to raise the stakes in terms of building true tension and thrills, makes this film the visual equivalent of eating a very low-calorie desert…a pretty package, but not very satisfying.