Last Summer

A MILFy lawyer (Léa Drucker) strikes up a romantic affair with her teenage stepson (Samuel Kircher).

This is an intense, provocative tale that explores the lines between predatory behaviour and genuine intimacy. Théo, the stepson, is 17 and emotionally mature enough to understand what sex is, but it becomes clear that he doesn’t quite grasp what love is—probably in large part due to his absent father.

Théo is in a vulnerable position and Anne, his stepmother, crossed a line with him. But it’s not entirely a cut-and-dried line between right and wrong here, Léa Drucker is well cast as Anne and has a genuine elegance and innocence about her that suggests she also doesn’t completely know what she’s getting into.

As the film progresses Anne deals with the fallout so coolly and ruthlessly that it becomes darkly amusing, and the film turns into a sort of dramatic thriller with hints of Hitchcock.

This could have been a disaster but in Breillat’s hands Last Summer is an entertaining erotic thriller that gets away with telling its pretty sordid tale.