![Gemma Arterton Shines In Subversive Tearjerker ‘Summerland’ [Review]](https://cooncel.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/gemma-arterton-shines-in-subversive-tearjerker-summerland-review_5f26b69352f60.jpeg "Gemma Arterton Shines In Subversive Tearjerker ‘Summerland’ [Review]")
There is a scene early on in “Summerland,” a romantic WWII drama by Jessica Swale, that calls to mind the pilot of “Killing Eve.” In “Killing Eve,” we first meet assassin Villanelle (Jodi Comer) in an ice cream shop, where, after smiling benignly at a little girl, she walks out and pushes the little girl’s ice cream onto her lap. In an early “Summerland” sequence, we get to know Alice Lamb (Gemma Arterton), village misanthrope. The absolute peak of her misbehavior comes when, after happening upon a woman and daughter coveting ration chocolate at the local grocer, she asks to buy the chocolate bar herself. Though the girl and mother thank her effusively, Alice slips the chocolate into her own coat pocket and strolls out of the shop, pleased, Volker Bertelmann’s jaunty score at her heels.