Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageSummerfield (1977)
Director: Ken Hannam
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Hannam remains best known here for Sunday Too Far Away, an intelligent outback variant on Howard Hawks' poignant Hollywood classics of male camaraderie and competitive professionalism. This follow-up also invokes an honoured movie heritage, but only insofar as it toys inventively with audience expectations of the genre patterns of the mystery-thriller. A new schoolteacher arrives in a small coastal community, to be immediately assailed by portents of unease: off-centre welcomes from adults and children alike, casual news that his predecessor has inexplicably disappeared, a violently accidental introduction to the enigmatic family at isolated Summerfield. 'You've come the wrong way' is the first line in the film, and all the subsequent atmospherics revolve around the teacher's inevitable attempt to make things add up: only to find the equation both more tragically complex and infinitely simpler than suspected. Neither as accomplished nor as affecting as Hannam's debut, but a neatly manipulative entertainment.Author: PT
Cast & crew
Director: Ken Hannam
Producer: Patricia Lovell
Cast: Nick Tate, Elizabeth Alexander, John Waters, Michelle Jarman, Geraldine Turner, Charles Tingwell full cast
Genre(s): Thrillers
Duration: 93 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade
Ten years, thousands of movies and millions of dollars in international box office, and it all boils down to this
Martin Provost discusses 'Séraphine'
Trevor Johnston talks to the director of 'Séraphine' about bringing a little known French painter back to life
Our verdict on Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson ends a triumphant decade with a sentimental misfire with this lush Alice Sebold adaptation
On the set of Ken Loach's 'Route Irish'
Dave Calhoun meets Ken Loach on the set of his forthcoming Iraq war movie
Stephen Poliakoff discusses 'Glorious 39'
Stephen Poliakoff’s ‘Glorious 39’ is his first film for cinema since ‘Food of Love’ in 1997. Dave Calhoun met him
Is 'Paranormal Activity' the new 'Blair Witch'?
How does a film go from DIY experiment to box-office smash? 'Paranormal Activity' director Oren Peli explains
Steven Soderbergh on 'The Informant!' and 'The Girlfriend Experience'
We talk to Steven Soderbergh about his two forthcoming films: one featuring a porn star, the other a chubby Matt Damon
A gateway to all things 'New Moon'
In anticipation of 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon', Time Out is offering the chance to pick up a limited edition pack with three exclusive magazines and a free poster.
The films that deserve a TV spin-off
With Roland Emmerich suggesting he'd like to make a '2012' TV spin-off, we propose some more movie-to-TV serialisations
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations
What do you think?
Post your review now