The Summer Book

Moomins’ creator Tove Jansson wrote many charmingly insightful books for adults, and none are better than her portrait of grandmother and granddaughter as they face a shared loss across one summer holiday together. Sophia (Emily Matthews) joins her grandmother (Glenn Close in a career-best performance), as well as her father (Anders Danielsen Lie) on an island in the Finnish Gulf.

Without overstressing any detail, but relying on poetic accumulation, the three orbit around the tenderness of recent loss, as it is experienced by all three separately. The new compensation of a connection with the brusque but loving grandmother becomes a comic delight. Lightly played, despite the Hollywood firepower of Glenn Close, this is beguilingly shaped, truly beautiful family trip to go on.