Um Amor de Verão

A young mental patient, just released from the hospital, returns to his hometown in the hopes of locating the remains of his family. Slightly pedestrian account, with a thin and overly-sensitive plot which goes around in circles, does get a big boost from lovely Susan Sarandon as a woman who becomes involved. In the central role, hard-working but bland Beau Bridges fails to register. Having come from a Hollywood family, actor Beau Bridges got off to a stumbling start in teen flicks like "Village of the Giants" and "The Explosive Generation", but by the early 1970s was appearing in acclaimed films such as "Gaily, Gaily" and "The Landlord". However, he never quite found his niche in character parts--and he doesn't have the dynamics needed for a leading man. He flounders in this drama (also known as "One Summer Love"), and was certainly not helped by Gilbert Cates' by-the-numbers direction. * from ****

I was able to see this movie on the love channel Comcast NJ on Dec 10, 2003 and I felt it was a moving story of a man who tries to find a starting point in his life by trying to find out his past. He has no memory of why he was put into an institution. I think Beau Bridges did a superb job of portraying a confused young man trying to piece his life together.

One of the few in-house productions of American International Pictures during its last few years, "Dragonfly" (a.k.a. "One Summer Love", as it currently plays on cable) was one of its first attempts to cater to a more mainstream audience without any exploitive elements. It's not a bad movie - the premise is one with promise (even keeping us very interested for its first part as it slowly peels away the mystery clouding the situation.) And Sarandon is pretty good as a sympathetic yet very human woman. Bridges is pretty uneven - his symptoms don't seem constant for any real mental illness - but occasionally he really nails it. The problem is that it's hard to sympathize, or even understand, a character who himself seems confused and not sure of what he wants most of the time! It's also jarring how the movie starts off to what seems to be a focus on the relationship between Bridges and Sarandon, then suddenly writes her out of almost the rest of the movie. The climatic moment also has some unfortunate unintended laughs. Still, I can't say that I found the movie, uneven as it is, boring at any moment.

I watched this movie on cable because the description said something to the effect of, Danbury Connecticut locations add realism to this ... I was intrigued since I am from Danbury. I was thrilled to see the town I grew up in pretty much as I remember it. Part of the reason I left Danbury was that it grew too large and lost the small town feel that made it special. Here it was again highlighted in this movie. While the plot and acting could have been better, they were not that bad. For me it was the trip down memory lane seeing businesses and neighborhoods that I frequented regularly emphasized indirectly in this film. That part I rate an 8. I am hoping to find this film still in print somewhere so I may share this same thrill with other members of my family. Until now I never thought of a movie being a source of entertainment for a reason other than the plot and acting.

This is a small film that got a limited release and is not remembered by many today despite the two name stars. Bridges plays a young man released from a mental home who sets off to find his family and fill in the blanks of his checkered history. Sarandon plays a woman he meets along the way who becomes practically smitten with him. This is one of the oddest parts of the film as Bridges' character seems so unstable and aimless that it's hard to understand Sarandon's motivations. The film has a slow pace and hardly any dramatic highpoints. Even the finale leaves much to be desired. The makers and the performers try hard but in the end, it's strictly a mixed bag. Sarandon fans will be disappointed as she doesn't have much beyond the typical 1970s' love interest role here.