Rating: 0/10 | Genre: Romance, Family, Drama, Mystery
Starring: Derya Pınar Ak, Onur Seyit Yaran, Mina Demirtaş, Selma Ergeç, Nehir Erdoğan
I went into Summer House not knowing what to expect. The premise sounded interesting enough. A woman named Selin goes back to a summer house and somehow ends up in her mother’s past. Time travel, family secrets, the chance to fix things. On paper, that’s the kind of setup that could go really well or completely fall apart.
This movie falls apart.
The biggest problem is the pacing. Nothing happens for the first forty minutes. We watch Selin arrive at this house, walk around, look at stuff. There’s some awkward dialogue where she talks to her mother on the phone about vague family issues, but you never actually understand what the conflict is. Then suddenly she’s in the past and you’re supposed to care about this era of her mother’s life that we know nothing about.
The cast isn’t bad. Derya Pınar Ak does what she can with Selin, and there’s a scene about halfway through where she has to confront her younger mother (Nehir Erdoğan) that actually has some weight to it. But the script doesn’t give them much to work with. Most conversations feel like characters explaining things to each other instead of actually talking.
What really bothered me was how the time travel stuff is handled. There’s no explanation for how it happens or why the summer house has this power. Selin just walks into a room and boom, she’s in 1985. The movie acts like this is totally normal and we should just go with it, but I needed something. Anything. Even a throwaway line about the house’s history would have helped.
The mystery element doesn’t work either. I’m assuming the big twist is supposed to be about what happened between Selin’s parents, but it’s so predictable that I figured it out in the second act. There’s no real tension building toward it.
The one thing the movie does get right is the atmosphere of the summer house itself. The cinematography is nice. It looks like a place where memories would happen. Too bad the story inside those walls doesn’t match the setting.
If you’re a fan of Turkish family dramas, you might find something here that works for you more than it did for me. But if you’re looking for a time travel story with actual stakes or a mystery that surprises you, keep looking. Did you see this one? I’m curious if I missed something that made it click for other people.
Where to Watch
Streaming availability varies by region. Check your favorite streaming platform to see if this title is available in your country.