Last Summer

I am not going to ruin the impact or lessen anyone's enjoyment of this remarkable movie by giving any of the plot away. Suffice to say, this did not turn out to be the movie I thought I was going to see when I started watching it. Like some of the other reviewers here, I thought this would be a sort of ersatz 'Stand By Me', only done from a Welsh stand point. And for the first ten minutes, it looked like this movie would be exactly that before it suddenly veered off in a totally different and altogether unexpected direction. Raw and visceral, this movie is not what you would call family entertainment despite the main characters being 4 teenage boys. I read that the four boys were newcomers to acting when they made this movie and that is remarkable because they do an excellent job. They are all good, but in particular young Noa Thomas who plays Davy, the central character, shines. So much of what happens in the movie is seen through his eyes and he gives an intelligent, believable, totally sympathetic performance. Throughout the movie, his motivations are an enigma and the viewer is left to wonder if he is a hindrence or a help, a comforter or a antagonist to those around him, but at the end his motives are revealed and it touches all of us.

I don't know if you would call this a coming-of-age movie in the sense that we're used to, although there is no doubt all the characters are changed by the end. I can say though that this is a very good film and I'm looking forward to watching it again soon.