This is The Hottest Summer in a long time, with record-breaking heat. The hot summer that Lucia (Nicole Damiani) is experiencing, however, has nothing to do with the heat. When she meets Nicola (Gianmarco Saurino), a soon-to-be priest, she falls for him. Determined to do whatever it takes to get her hands on him–nothing will stand in her way.
The Hottest Summer is simple, basic really–and it doesn’t do much to separate itself from the slew of other teenager-esque romance films that have come before. That doesn’t necessarily make it a bad film, but what it does is make it predictable. The one thing that is different, that does allow it to stand apart from the others, is the fact that a priest is thrown into the fold. With that, however, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the plot. Is it disrespectful? Does it manage to fall on the right side of what is and isn’t acceptable in popular culture? I don’t think I can answer that question–I can really only tell you how I feel and whether or not I believe The Hottest Summer is successful.
I refuse to be offended. I refuse to let anything that anyone says about me bother me in that way–but I would venture to guess that I’m not the majority in that regard. The Hottest Summer certainly doesn’t offend me, but I’d venture to guess that there will be many viewers who are offended by the film’s content. It has to be hard for the filmmakers to justify making a film where the point of it seems to be to seduce a priest until he breaks his vows. Anti-Christian (sort of) plot aside, The Hottest Summer is actually a bit entertaining. There’s more to the film than just a plot that constantly questions whether or not becoming a priest is worth the sacrifice–the film constantly grapples with the idea of temptation and the things that we are willing to give up when we are tempted.
Writers Giuseppe Paternó, Matteo Pilati (also director), and Tommaso Triolo make a point to include various renditions of temptation and put them on display throughout the course of The Hottest Summer. This is how the film will ultimately appeal to viewers, because it gives us something to access, to identify with–and the film never really veers from this point. There’s only a time or two when emotion really rises to the surface, when viewers are really able to feel what the characters are feeling–so it’s important that there be something to connect with–and it’s this idea of temptation strewn throughout the film. From the opening moments of The Hottest Summer, this is the aspect of the film that shines the brightest, and that’s good–because just about everything else is average.
The Hottest Summer has beautiful visuals, an attractive cast, and an underlying narrative that should appeal to many–but everything else has been done before. The acting is average (not bad, but nothing to write home about), the storyline (regardless of the twists and turns that exist) is cliche, and the cinematography simply allows us to follow the story in the simplest of ways. This was, aside from the religious content, a pretty safe film. The Hottest Summer does what I think it intended to do–and I suppose that’s good enough.
Directed by Matteo Pilati.
Written by Giuseppe Paternò, Matteo Pilati, & Tommaso Triolo.
Starring Gianmarco Saurino, Nicole Damiani, Alice Angelica, Stefania Sandrelli, Nino Frassica, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐½/10
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