A Summer's Tale
The third of Eric Rohmer'sFour Seasonsromances follows the  indecision of a young man who juggles three women during his final summer  between school and work. Drifting along the beaches of Brittany while waiting  for his commitment-shy girlfriend, Lena, to meet him, Gaspard (Melvil Poupaud  ofDiary of a Seducer) becomes fast friends with pretty waitress  Margot (Amanda Langlet, the grown-up Pauline ofPauline at the Beacha  decade earlier) and has a fling with Margot's aggressive and sexy friend  Solene before Lena finally shows. By then, Gaspard has inadvertently  committed himself to all three women. It's a lovely portrait of awkwardness  and ambivalence set against the gorgeous land and seascape of Brittany, and  populated by pretty young performers.This, the most understated of Rohmer's sex farces, carries a bittersweet  sting, but little of the emotional effervescence of his best films. While  these characters are no less pretentious or vulnerable than his other lovers  (who all seem to be emotionally at sea), Rohmer just skims the surface of  their emotional revelation. His greatest achievement is the evocation of  young adults caught between their teens and 20s, with little real experience  but full of easily sidelined ideals. In the best Rohmer tradition, the  circular conversations and solipsistic monologues are neither glib nor  pretentious, merely the immature but sincere ramblings of vulnerable youth  playing adult games.--Sean Axmaker