Despite hoping for at least one melodramatic, all-hell-breaks-loose, utterly chaotic moment before the end of In the Summers, I was ultimately glad to see director Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio not resorting to that at all. From its very first moment to its final one, “In the Summers” remains very much understated. There’s a deliberate lack of drama, which has to be a creative choice the director has made for their first feature. That might be an issue for some of you, but it didn’t bother me, given that, for the most part, I found myself immersed in the decade-spanning story of Violetta, Eva, and their manchild father, Vicente. Puerto Rican rapper Residente plays the father in his feature film debut, and considering how agitated I felt during some of his questionable activities, I wouldn’t hesitate to say that he has done a fantastic job. So have Sasha Calle and Lio Mehiel, who have much less screen time playing the sisters (the film is divided into four segments, where other actors also play the parts, and they’re wonderful as well) but still manage to leave their mark. The ending of In the Summers might leave you a bit confused, and in this article, I’m going to take a look into that.
Spoilers Ahead
What is the movie about?
Little Eva and Violetta are picked up by their father, Vicente. They are going to spend the summer in his ancestral house in Las Cruces, where he has recently moved. It’s evident that Vicente is divorced, and it looks like he was at the losing end of the custody battle. However, Eva is enchanted by everything her father does—from eating pasta by stuffing his face in the plate to driving his car recklessly in the name of a game. Violetta, on the other hand, seems a bit reserved and also hurt (most likely because of how things have turned out for her parents). As I have already said, in In the Summers, things are mostly subtle, and a lot of things are unsaid. But it’s also not hard to get what’s going on if you pay a moderate amount of attention.
At a local bar nearby, Vicente introduces his kids to the barkeep, Carmen, who’s his childhood friend (that’s information from much later though). In stark contrast to Vicente’s hot-headed, erratic personality, Carmen appears to be much more sensitive and calm. That also becomes the reason behind her affectionate relationship with the girls, which remains strong enough even when they drift away from their father. Violetta’s journey to queerhood also starts during the summer holidays, when she insists on cutting her hair and Eva obliges. That leads to Vicente having an ugly telephonic fight with the girls’ mother and the conclusion of the first chapter.
What happens between Vicente and Violetta?
We see Eva and Violetta, now teenagers, spending the summer with their father at Las Cruces yet again, except he seems to be in worse shape than before. He can’t accept that Violetta is better at playing pool than him, gets mad at her when she requests him not to drive them home when he’s drunk, and ends up throwing quite a tantrum. The next morning though, he tries making it up to them by taking the girls to see the sunrise, and it seems like Eva and Violetta are fine letting their dad get away with it. The bar for what they expect from Vicente has gone down over the years.
Violetta’s summer gets considerably better when she develops a crush on her father’s student, Camila. She’s a girl Vicente is helping out in physics, which also confirms that he’s sort of a genius. Sadly for Vicente, his talent has gone pretty much wasted, and he has nobody but himself to blame. And when Violetta, frustrated by her father’s behavior at a party, blurts it out and calls him a loser, Vicente is understandably mad. Deep down, he knows very well that his daughter is right after all. He further proves Violetta right when they have an accident due to his negligence and drug use. Vicente and Eva survive with barely any scratch, but Violetta is severely injured. It’s only fitting for this chapter to end with Vicente screaming for help, proving how incompetent he has been as a father.
For Violetta, it only makes sense to not pay a visit two summers later (not entirely certain about the timeline, but that’s how long it feels like). Vicente is now in a relationship with this young woman, Yenny, and they even have a kid (clearly a bad idea for a man like him). Without her sister around, Eva’s summer with ‘new’ dad Vicente is worse than she imagined. He clearly seems to have a lot on his plate and no time for Eva. She has sharpened her skill at pool over the years, but her father is less than enthusiastic to find out about it. The segment grimly ends with Carmen handing Eva a drink, who gulps it down with tears rolling down her cheek.
Why does Vicente cry in the end?
Now very much adults, Eva and Violetta reach Las Cruces for the summer, but instead of staying at their father’s, they rent a house with much better amenities. It also seems like they’re here only for the sake of it, as they continue to give Vicente cold treatment. His life, as you would expect, has not improved at all. Yenny is now out of the picture (although he says they’re on good terms), and he is clearly overwhelmed with the five-year-old Natalia. The kid is super excited to see her big sisters, though, and you can’t help but feel sad for her. There are fleeting moments of cheer between Vicente and his adult daughters, like when they’re playing pick-up sticks or when they’re all out together having a really fun day with Natalia. But the growing distance between Vicente and the sisters is unmistakable.
Eva and Violetta also seem damaged inside, and considering we have no knowledge about their lives outside the summers in Las Cruces, no speculation can be made. Eva wears her sadness in shades and drowns her sorrow by getting intimate with a random stranger. Violetta still appears to carry the trauma from her accident, as we see her getting skittish and strangely aggressive with Camila during a moment of intimacy. One thing that is praiseworthy about In the Summers is it not forgetting the supporting characters, be it Carmen or Camila.
Just like how it started, In the Summers ends without any fuss. Vicente sees off Eva and Violetta, and no words are exchanged among them. Right after they leave, we see Vincent bursting into tears for the first (and only) time in the movie. He knows he has failed with his daughters. And it is very much possible that Eva and Violetta are eventually going to stop having these obligatory summers at Las Cruces unless they keep returning for nostalgia, Carmen, and their half-sister. Vicente, as a father, has not quite hit the mark here. He does get another chance though, with Natalia. But for Eva and Violetta, the prospect of a fun childhood with a loving father is nonexistent. They do have each other though, which is going to keep them afloat.
Little things I noticed
- Vicente teaching little Violetta how to crack eggs in the first segment, and adult Violetta successfully doing that in the last one is a nice callback.
- Eva turns over all the hourglasses at Vicente’s house during her summer alone. This is clearly an indication of how bored and alone she feels and her wanting to get through it as fast as possible.
- Making Eva a skateboard enthusiast is a nice touch. That’s a very ‘loner thing’ and fits the character.
- Among all Vicente’s ‘trying to be the cool dad’ moves, making Violetta smoke up a joint when she doesn’t intend to, has to be the worst one.
