“But the child must grow,” writes German psychoanalyst Erich Fromm in his seminal 1956 book “The Art of Loving,” discussing a necessary transition in the relationship between a mother and her progeny. “The very essence of motherly love is to care for the child’s growth, and that means to want the child’s separation from herself.”
In Rodrigo Ruiz Patterson’s delicately complex feature debut “Summer White,” Valeria and her lonesome 13-year-old son Rodrigo seem way overdue for the kind of crucial disjointing Fromm prescribes. Exploring their thorny chapter of parting that eventually arrives — seen from the possessive offspring’s point of view with both caution and empathy — Patterson dances around tricky Freudian themes with nerve and grace, gradually approaching something astute about the boundaries and boundlessness of maternal affection.
Though it gets weighed down by a trace of experimental aimlessness, a languid pace that limits the film’s theatrical prospects,...
In Rodrigo Ruiz Patterson’s delicately complex feature debut “Summer White,” Valeria and her lonesome 13-year-old son Rodrigo seem way overdue for the kind of crucial disjointing Fromm prescribes. Exploring their thorny chapter of parting that eventually arrives — seen from the possessive offspring’s point of view with both caution and empathy — Patterson dances around tricky Freudian themes with nerve and grace, gradually approaching something astute about the boundaries and boundlessness of maternal affection.
Though it gets weighed down by a trace of experimental aimlessness, a languid pace that limits the film’s theatrical prospects,...
- 1/27/2020
- by Tomris Laffly
- Variety Film + TV
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