Summer Lovers (1982)

[6]

Peter Gallagher and Daryl Hannah play a young American couple vacationing in the Greek Islands whose relationship hits a rough patch when Gallagher takes a shine to a French archaeologist (Valérie Quennessen). But guilt and jealousy give way to something more congenial, and the archaeologist eventually moves in with the Americans as a polyamorous relationship is born.

Summer Lovers is written and directed by Randal Kleiser (Grease, The Blue Lagoon), whose mission seems to be creating a beach party movie with some depth of character and progressive views on human sexuality. He succeeds with the first part. The film has a wonderful escapist quality with its nubile cast and exotic backdrop, and the trio of lead actors are plenty beautiful and charismatic enough to hold our interest. But the film falters early on in its attempt to justify how Hannah’s character overcomes her jealousy to befriend Quennessen and welcome her into a shared relationship with Gallagher. It’s also a little bit hard to shake the icky notion that Summer Lovers is nothing but a gussied-up excuse to exploit one of heterosexual man’s greatest wishes — to be with two women at once.

Fortunately, the film gets more believable as it goes, and never sinks to soft-core desperation. It doesn’t quite succeed as a compelling character study, but at least it tries to explore some provocative ideas. It gets bonus points for bucking the trend of punishing characters who explore beyond the boundaries of socially acceptable sexual expression.