How I Ended This Summer (2010)

Lack of good storyline.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Russian director Alexei Popogrebsky's "How I Ended This Summer" is a tense, stunning and often frustrating marathon of film. This is an award winning film having claimed the Golden Bear at The Berlin International Film Festival and best film at the London Film Festival Awards, and certainly provides a unique cinematic experience with its stunning landscapes and minimal use of dialogue and soundtrack. The film follows the stark lives of two Russian meteorologists, working on an inhospitable and isolated wasteland on the Siberian coast. College student Pavel is on a work placement, attempting to work alongside experienced and intimidating Sergei. The environment itself is the source of much of the cinematic beauty but also deadly hazards: polar bears, radioactivity, sheer cliffs, and wild weather. These hazards, and the abhorrent isolation takes its toll on immature Pavel who becomes unable to communicate with Sergei. The tension reaches breaking point when Pavel loses Sergei's trust and is unable to bring himself to tell him the news that his family has died in a car accident. Where this film excels is in scene depiction, with every view a stunning image symbolic of Pavel's temperament. Almost every image in this film could be a photograph worthy of framing. The landscape is stark, the soundtrack is almost nonexistent, as is the dialogue, and it forces the viewer to experience Pavel's toxic isolation. But to be perfectly honest, I have never been more frustrated watching a film than when I endured the two hours of silence that is "How I Ended This Summer". Several times throughout the film you are forced to spend over a minute watching a character walk off into the distance, and all this with no music, no dialogue, not even anything to think about. For a while I even played music in the background just to maintain sanity. To add to this frustration, our main character Pavel is an irritating young man who constantly makes mistakes, is completely devoid of any courage, seems to have no interests and makes every wrong decision he possibly can.Perhaps it is this very frustration that makes this film award winningly unique. Popogrebski outstandingly succeeds in communicating the feelings of young Pavel, even if it at times this process is excruciatingly painful. "How I Ended This Summer" is a film for film buffs. To anyone else wanting to endure this marathon I would suggest multitasking with some knitting or doing some pushups, otherwise you could expect to be footing the bill for the screen you just threw your drink at.

How i ended this summer was the winner of the 2010 London film festival award and it also won many other awards from around the world and quite rightly so in my opinion.Two men of different generations , who work on a an Arctic weather station , come to blows when the younger man has to tell his colleague of a family tragedy but fears the consequences of telling him.This film will not appeal to everyone. It's a Russian film directed by Aleksei Popogrebsky and although subtitled , does not really depend on a large amount of dialogue to tell the story.It starts of at a slow pace and as the film progresses , the tension builds to the point that it gets the viewer angry as to the decisions that are being made. Why doesn't the young man tell his elder the news? Is he really that scared of him? What will happen when he finds out?This is a film about human relationships and vulnerability .Apart from the tense story , it looks superb too and i only hope lots of people give this film a chance because they wont regret it.

When deciding whether or not to purchase or even see a film, I do a IMDb search to see how the top 1000 reviewers rated it. Usually, you can figure that if the film was rated 7.0 or higher by the top 1000, then it is worth both seeing and buying, so I bought this one sight unseen. This was a big mistake. While the cinematography is stunning. The storyline is all over the place, and the plot details fail to follow common sense and fall apart completely. It's got more holes than a slice of Swiss cheese. The acting job by Sergei Puskepalis is consistent and believable, but the acting job by Grigory Dobrygin just doesn't hold water. It's all over the place. If you going to see the movie for the cinematography, great; but don't expect to get any grins over the plot. It's just not there. On a scale of 10, I would have to rate it a 4. It the plot didn't get in the way so much, I would be tempted to rate it higher. My recommendation is to see this film only if you have seen every other film you want to see first. I can only figure that it got rated 7.3 by the top 1000 because someone wanted to ramp it up to improve viewership.

If you're into action movies, Hollywood flicks, comedies (romantic or otherwise) you can stop here - this is not the film for you. Two hours of dazzling Arctic scenery with a psychological battle between the only two inhabitants of a Russian scientific data gathering team. The Older man has served there for many years - the Younger is learning the ropes for the first time. Older doesn't appreciate Younger's lack of dedication, but they get along as well as can be expected. Then while Older is away fishing, Younger receives a shocking radio message meant for Older. He makes his first serious mistake by not passing it along. Because he's afraid ? or crazy ? or just to keep things from getting strange? We're left to decide for ourselves. One mistake leads to another and another and the all-too-real consequences drive the rest of the film. I've said too much already.The real joy from this film comes from the magnificent photography, the mood the director gives us, and a story that continues to surprise us. I was fortunate enough to see it on the big screen that these scenes almost demand. It's available from filmmovement.com on DVD. I suggest sitting real close to your widescreen TV to let the mood and the place surround you. For me, this is the best film I've seen in 2010. It really crawled into my gut as it unfolded. If you appreciate film for the art that it CAN be - but so rarely is - I highly recommend this one. If you're looking for entertaining fluff, try something else.