“Life is not kind,” says Gemma Arterton in a new trailer for “Summerland.” “Anguish is inevitable. What matters is how you deal with it.” Jessica Swale’s feature debut sees the “Vita & Virginia” star playing Alice, a reclusive writer who lives a solitary existence on the seaside cliffs of Southern England during World War II. Her life changes overnight when Frank (Lucas Bond, “The Cleansing Hour”) , a young London evacuee, unexpectedly turns up on her doorstep and she’s expected to adopt him. Alice makes her feelings about the arrangement perfectly clear: “I don’t want him,” she insists. But as the woman accompanying Frank reminds her, “We’ve all got to do our bit.”
The spot sees Alice and Frank gradually opening up to one another. Asked about why she’s never had a husband, Alice reveals a past romance with a woman (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, “The Morning Show”). Frank tells his adopted mother about his dad, a soldier in the war.
“Murder Mystery” and “My Zoe” are among Arterton’s recent credits
Described as an “intensely emotional story of love’s endurance in trying times,” “Summerland” hits select theaters and VOD July 31.
