Summer Girls

Gosh, ‘tis truly the season of lesbian period pieces with heavy literary bents. After “Wild Nights With Emily” and “Vita & Virginia” and “Tell It To the Bees,” and – of course – “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” we now have “Summerland.” The British drama is set during the London Blitz of World War II. Gemma Arterton plays a writer who reluctantly takes on a young charge to do her part for the war effort and all. And as they get to know each other she reveals she was in love once, with a woman who looks remarkably like and in fact is Gugu Mbatha-Raw.



Talk about your actresses from lesbian roles colliding in new lesbian roles. Gemma was of course just in “Vita & Virginia” and Gugu will always be the “San Junipero” of our hearts. I have no idea, ultimately, where there love story will go. But if they don’t get to grow old together, which it seems to be hinted at here, may we have enough glorious flashbacks of vintage gay love to at least make it worth the heartbreak. And if that also involves old-timey swimsuits, so be it.