The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
Back to trending 
A Summer Place
Drama · Romance · 1959
A self-made businessman rekindles a romance with a former flame while their two teenage children begin a romance of their own with drastic consequences for both couples.
Movie details
A Summer Place
“The Inn... The Guests... The Sensations...”
1959 Drama · Romance 2h 10m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
6.9 / 10
4K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
86 %
Tomatometer
TMDB
6.6 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
A self-made businessman rekindles a romance with a former flame while their two teenage children begin a romance of their own with drastic consequences for both couples.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over A Summer Place?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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The Lost Husband
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Trying to put her life back together after the death of her husband, Libby and her children move to her estranged Aunt's goat farm in central Texas.
Magnificent Obsession
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Reckless playboy Bob Merrick crashes his speedboat, requiring emergency attention from the town’s only resuscitator while a local hero, Dr. Phillips, dies waiting for the life-saving device. Merrick then tries to right his wrongs with the doctor’s widow, Helen, falling in love with her in the process.
Love Finds You in Valentine
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Kennedy Blaine, a Californian girl, inherits a ranch in the small town of Valentine in Nebraska. Before she sells the property, she decides to spend the summer in her house and learn more about her family.
Flamingo Road
Drama · 1949
A stranded carnival dancer takes on a corrupt political boss when she marries into small-town society.
The Perfect Catch
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When Jessica Parker’s former high school boyfriend, superstar baseball player Chase Taynor, returns to town, she finds the inspiration to reinvent her struggling diner… and revisits the past to find something even better for the future.
Everything, Everything
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A teenager who's lived a sheltered life because she's allergic to everything, falls for the boy who moves in next door.
A Valentine's Match
Romance · 2020
Fired from her job as a reality TV host, Natalie returns home for Valentine's Day, only to find herself running the town festival's auction with her ex-fiancé thanks to two scheming mothers.
Goodbye Again
Drama · 1961
Middle-aged businesswoman Paula Tessier rejects the advances of her client's amusing 25-year-old son, Philip Van der Besh, but reconsiders when her longtime philandering partner begins yet another casual affair with a younger woman. She soon learns that May-December romances with older women are frowned upon in society.
Where it lives
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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.
Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Delmer Daves
Written by
Delmer Daves
Richard Egan
Ken Jorgenson
Dorothy McGuire
Sylvia Hunter
Sandra Dee
Molly Jorgenson
Arthur Kennedy
Bart Hunter
Troy Donahue
Johnny Hunter
Beulah Bondi
Mrs. Emily Hamilton Hamble
Constance Ford
Helen Jorgenson
Court is in session
Put A Summer Place on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.