The Summer Book
Music Box Films | Release Date: September 19, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
RogerEbert.comNell MinowSep 19, 2025
The Summer Book is a haiku of a movie, conveying profound thoughts about time, memory, loss, and nature through a simplified, meditative, cinematic language of exquisite images and gentle music. Read full review
80
Film ThreatBenjamin FranzDec 18, 2025
The Summer Book is a wholesome meditation on the life cycle. Read full review
70
The New York TimesLisa KennedySep 18, 2025
Scanning the elder woman’s weathered visage and the grandchild’s open face as well as giving the island’s rocky, forested, mossy and watery environs their many close-ups, The Summer Book offers a loving portrait of budding and fading. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyOct 16, 2024
The cumulative experience is affecting in its own minor-key way, an appealing throwback to old-fashioned family dramas of a more innocent era. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleFlora Belle FarrSep 25, 2025
Nature may be healing, but too many static shots of it can drag an already slow movie out even more. Still, it’s not enough to detract from the moving performances of its three leads, who make The Summer Book well worth the watch. Read full review
67
IndieWireRitesh MehtaOct 29, 2024
The film just lacks in, you know, tension, danger, build, and stakes, the hallmarks of dramatic narrative. It’s almost as though the word “mellifluous,” pertaining to Hania Rani’s score, was coined for this film. Read full review
60
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganAug 30, 2025
Although there’s nothing about Charlie McDowell’s interpretation that doesn’t aim for similar excellence, the very act of embodying the book lessens its magic. Read full review
60
VarietyGuy LodgeAug 30, 2025
Charlie McDowell makes an equally respectful and respectable stab at the task, capturing some of the wistful, soft-sun warmth of Jansson’s writing — though not quite matching its unassuming poetic depths. Read full review
50
The Film StageOliver WeirOct 21, 2024
The Summer Book as a whole proves much too programmatic (an early don’t-worry-it’s-nothing cough sets the tone) and much too fearful of leaving its audience in the dark about the characters’ emotional states (hence its symbolic clutter). Read full review
40
The TimesKevin MaherAug 30, 2025
The earnestness slowly becomes suffocating, and Grandmother’s endless lessons grating. Yes, nature is the ultimate healer. And? Read full review
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