The most chilling aspect of any villain is his or her normalcy. The more aberrant the behavior, the easier it is to dismiss their villainy. Normal folks doing bad things though is a bit more unsettling. We see their ordinariness reflected in the mirror. One such antihero is Rachel (Sarah Grappin) in Jacques Maillot's superb Cold as Summer.
Rachel is a single mother raising a child she doesn't really have the temperament for. She gets Rohypnol from her doctor not only to help her sleep, but to keep the baby from crying at night as well. In any scene where she's with the kid it's clear that she has absolutely no idea what to do in any given situation. Her life is not where she wants it to be but she doesn't know or cannot do what it takes to properly get someplace else. She finds an alternative route that has consequences beyond anything she intended.
Rachel is contrasted with Claire (Nathalie Richard). She's a cop struggling with child issues of her own. Events take her towards Rachel, a woman she is appalled by even as she grows more sympathetic. Both Richard and Grappin put in excellent performances. Maillot and Pierre Chosson's script manages to move the story towards a level of sympathy one wouldn't think to feel for Rachel but it's Grappin's accomplishment that it works so well. One can't help but hope she succeeds while reviling her at the same time.
So much of the effectiveness of this film is predicated on not knowing much about the story line. Suffice to say, it is an excellent movie. All too often made-for-TV films are artistic toilets overflowing with cinematic waste. Cold as Summer is a plunger that makes all that nastiness head down the drain leaving only pristine porcelain perfection to contemplate. OK, the metaphor sucks but you get the point.
