The Summer Book

2025 1h 34m EN

👍

7.3

SOLID

🍅

80%

FRESH

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

6.5

IMDB

★7.3TMDB · 33🍅80%Rotten Tomatoes●57Metacritic★6.5IMDB · 1,673

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

The story of the relationship between Sophia, an eight-year-old girl who is growing up fast, and her grandmother, who is nearing the end of her life. They are spending time together with Sophia’s father, at the family summer house on a tiny unspoiled island in the Gulf of Finland. All three are coming to terms with the recent death of Sophia’s mother in very different ways.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Glenn Close
Grandmother
Anders Danielsen Lie
Father
Emily Matthews
Sophia
Ingvar E. Sigurðsson
Eriksson
Pekka Strang
Mr. Malander
Sophia Heikkilä
Mrs. Malander
Theo Zilliacus
Tofer

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Charlie McDowell
Writers: Robert Jones
Languages: English
Countries: Finland, United Kingdom, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released last year.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: Finland, United Kingdom, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Charlie McDowell, shot by Sturla Brandth Grøvlen. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Hania Rani. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Jussi Rautaniemi shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Glenn Close and Anders Danielsen Lie and Emily Matthews carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt26940053 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

Only 33 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Charlie McDowell directs. Sturla Brandth Grøvlen behind the camera. Hania Rani scores. Jussi Rautaniemi cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in Finland, United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released last year.
2International production across 3 countries: Finland, United Kingdom, United States of America.
3Directed by Charlie McDowell, shot by Sturla Brandth Grøvlen. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Hania Rani. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Jussi Rautaniemi shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Glenn Close and Anders Danielsen Lie and Emily Matthews carry the top of the cast.
7IMDB entry: tt26940053 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Only 33 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Sturla Brandth Grøvlen
Original score: Hania Rani
Editing: Jussi Rautaniemi
Production design: Lina Nordqvist
Costume design: Tiina Kaukanen
Makeup / hair: Curtis Foreman
VFX supervisor: Theodor Groeneboom
Runtime: 94 min · 1h 34m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $5,000,000
Original language: EN
IMDB: The Summer Book (2025)
Rotten Tomatoes: 80% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 57/100
IMDB rating: 6.5/10 · 1,673 votes
US box office: $62,996

Awards

3 nominations total

Also by

Charlie McDowell

Stills · wallpapers

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Brent Marchant2026-01-18
★ 5/10
Intergenerational stories told through books and film – especially those involving touching interactions between grandparents and grandchildren – are longtime family favorites beloved for their inspiration, endearment and exploration of significant life lessons. One popular offering in this vein is The Summer Book, a 1972 novel by Swedish-Finnish author Tove Jansson, the foundation for this latest cinematic project from director Charlie McDowell. This fictional tale, based on members of Jansson’s own family, tells the story of a recently widowed father (Anders Danielsen Lie) who spends the summer at a family vacation home on a remote island in the Gulf of Finland with his young daughter, Sophia (Emily Matthews), and her wise old grandmother (Glenn Close, who’s inexplicably and uncannily made up to look like the second coming of Mrs. Doubtfire). The narrative largely consists of a series of conversations between Sophia and her granny about an array of life’s big questions (many related to growing up and growing old), most of which take place on various nature outings and in late night talks in the intimate surroundings of the family home. There are also several grownup dialogues between Grandma and her son, who’s having noticeable difficulty working through the grief of losing his wife and, consequently, finds himself less able to communicate with his daughter. By all rights, this would seem to provide the makings for a picture filled with a series of successive special moments (even though, in all honesty, Sophia, as she’s portrayed here, seems to be a little too old for asking some of the patently juvenile questions she raises, inquiries much more realistically suited to someone her junior). Unfortunately, those hoped-for results rarely surface in this offering, given that the script is painfully thin, smotheringly earnest, and riddled with far too many hypothetical open-ended questions that lead nowhere and frequently lack pertinence. What’s more, the film is highly episodic in nature with a strung-together mélange of meandering, unfocused events that lack meaningful underpinnings or relevant connection to one another. This release thus often plays like a poorly written young adult/tweener novel consisting of random occurrences that are supposed to seem like they add up to something profound but never do. The film’s overdramatic score, with its grand, swirling passages that lead one to believe that something important is about to happen (but, once again, doesn’t) continually leaves viewers deflated and unimpressed (perfect fodder for a Mystery Science Theater 3000 bit). And then there are some just plain odd sequences thrown in without explanation or apparent relevance, such as when Grandma goes for a swim and then puzzlingly exits the water and goes for a walk, naked, in the woods. (Huh?) While I must confess that I have not read the source material for this release, I have perused a number of reviews that have suggested the novel on which this film is based probably wasn’t a suitable choice from which to make a picture, given that it’s tone is more subtle, nuanced and meditative than what a filmmaker could probably capture and effectively depict in a movie. And, based on the finished product, that assessment would seem to be squarely on target. “The Summer Book” comes across like a production that struggles to translate its story from page to screen, and, while it might have some appeal to those who have read (and love) the book, it mostly leaves unfamiliar viewers unsatisfied, mystified and suffocated by its overwrought sincerity, cryptic happenings and melodramatic accentuations. Indeed, it’s one summer that many of us probably can’t wait to end.

Production companies