The Summer House

An interesting if also ultimately disappointing German drama about a family in freefall, writer-director Curtis Burz's The Summer House carries an ominous tone of rage and perversion. An architect named Markus (Sten Jacobs) is recruited by business associate and friend Christopher (Stephan Bürgi) to help the latter pay off back taxes. Christopher's son Johannes (Jasper Fuld), overhearing this conversation, takes note of his father's plight. From this narrative kernel, various layers of secrecy, poor judgment, illicit behavior, and different kinds of extortion are brought into play, involving orgies between the principal adults, a weird bond between Markus's wife and young daughter, a homemade abortion, and a wholly inappropriate relationship with a deceptively innocent Johannes. Nothing good can come from any of this, although Burz seems largely interested in simply piling on the pathologies with a creepy, unrevealing dispassion. After a while, however, the shocks stop making an impact, until a disturbing climax that doesn't feel real. Not a necessary purchase. (T. Keogh)