Movie Review ~ Summer Camp

I was not built for the summer camp experience.  Much to my parents’ dismay, this only child preferred to spend their months away from school at home, where I could keep an eye on them.  Oh, they tried to ship me off several times, and I’d grit my teeth to get through the week but always be the first kid at the end of the driveway into camp with my bag packed and ready to go.  I applaud their noble attempts to socialize me, but at the same time, it didn’t help that something was different each time I returned. One time, they replaced all of our furniture, so the house looked completely different. Another time, they had purchased a new bed for me, but it didn’t fit up the stairs, so I spent a week on an air mattress (one of those Alex Kintner flimsy ones).  The final straw was when they gave away my dog. Yes, you read that right.  My allergies were terrible with him, but without a proper goodbye…ouch.

Here’s the kicker – as much as I protested and battled them back from sending me, looking back now, I wish I could go back and talk some sense into my younger self because I would KILL for the kind of experience I belly ached through back then.  That’s probably why I’ve always gravitated to films set in a camp setting.  Whether it be a warm dramedy (Indian Summer – a gem), a silly comedy (Ernest Goes to Camp), or one of the umpteen horror films picking off hot-blooded counselors, you can count on me being one of the first in line.

You can imagine why a film like Summer Camp sounds so appealing to the happy (older) camper in me.  You have three top-notch actresses, any of whom could carry a film single-handedly, playing friends who reunite at their 50-year camp reunion.  Aspiring to join the ranks of nostalgic female-led classics like Now & Then (1995) without the rambunctious R-rated hijinks of 2001’s Wet Hot American Summer, it aims for the audiences who made 80 for Brady a mid-level hit.  Regrettably, Summer Camp feels more like a forgettable arts-and-crafts project than the bittersweet tale of friendship fortified in the forest it markets itself as. 

I had flashbacks to my camp journey watching tween Nora (Taylor Madeline Hand) exit the bus that dropped her off at Camp Pinnacle.  A city kid landing in the big woods, she’s unsure of how the next eight weeks will go but has decided to make the best of it.  She wanders into the wrong cabin, but it is a happy accident because she meets Ginny (the more experienced, cigarette-smoking camper) and Mary (a soft-spoken budding equestrian).  Quickly bonding after being ostracized by a trio of mean girls, they stumble upon even better fortune when they are moved to their own cabin, appropriately named Sassafras.

Memorable summers at camp follow, and while the girls remain in touch as they grow up, it’s never quite the same as when they had time dedicated to one another.  Fifty years later, Nora (Diane Keaton, Book Club) is a workaholic widow unable to unplug; Mary (Alfre Woodard, The Gray Man) dropped her dream of becoming a doctor after marrying and starting a family and is now an empty nest nurse with a needy husband.  The one who seems to have it all is Ginny (Kathy Bates, The Miracle Club), a Brene Brown-esque self-help guru who made bank with her tough love approach and pre-packaged nuggets of wisdom.  Ginny thinks the opportunity to reunite at Camp Pinnacle would be a perfect time to rekindle their childhood bond, but the others have varying degrees of enthusiasm. 

When the women do arrive, the camp hasn’t changed much (and indeed, the production design by Scott Daniel (Fall) skimped on the period details, so 1974 looks strikingly like 2024), but they find it harder to pick up where they left off, despite their best efforts.  To their credit, everyone else seems stuck as well.  Queen Bee meanie Beverly D’Angelo (The Good House) still isn’t over caring what others think about her, Nora’s crush Stevie (Eugene Levy, Splash) hasn’t entirely shed his wise but awkward phase, and Tommy’s (Dennis Haysbert, Flamin’ Hot) torch for Mary continues to burn bright.  As the week progresses, the women will face an uphill battle, trying to focus on building one another up while figuring out what happens to them after camp is over.

Nestled in the heart of North Carolina, the setting of Summer Camp is ideal, a feast for the eyes and a picture-perfect evocation of timelessness.  However, the too-perfect production design undermines any tangible authenticity so much so that the camp, meant to be a relic of the past mirroring the women who have returned to it, appears squeaky clean and ready for the next Hallmark movie to be filmed once Keaton, Bates, and Woodard have packed up.  The lack of lovable charm in a ramshackle environment gives off a sterility to which none of the filmmakers seem to give much notice.

Written and directed by Castille Landon (an actress appearing in films like Lady of the Manor but also known for her behind the scenes work in the popular chapters of the After film series), the film seems unable to choose between exploring the uneven dynamics among friends or trailing them through individual later-in-life crises.  It’s unfocused when it could be zooming in on a more insightful peek into friendship, gaining, and self-discovery.  One moment, we hear about Woodard’s loveless marriage, and the next thing you know, you’re in the middle of an unnecessary food fight.  No one in the cast seems particularly interested in diving into the madcap comedy shenanigans, either, least of all the three leading ladies.

Who could blame them?  The greatest asset of Summer Camp packed with it is the stars, and they all bring their considerable talents and magic touch to their roles, doing what they can to deliver performances that have weight and worth.  Keaton, wearing new versions of the same outfits she’s worn in her last ten films, is her usual quirky self, and Bates slides easily into the role of a bold and brassy broad as if she hasn’t been writing the how-to guide on the practice for the last three decades.  Woodard, though, makes the strongest case for Summer Camp, which has the potential to be more than the sum of its parts.  There’s not much to Mary on the page, but Woodard brings her to life and then some.

The three women share a chemistry that, while not exactly electric, produces a few sparks of static now and then.  The supporting characters can feel like caricatures, especially Betsy Sodaro (Golden Arm), an over-eager counselor assigned to be at Ginny’s beck and call.  Sodaro is funny, but she’s trying to wear a Chris Farley guise that doesn’t work here. However, paired with the bland Nicole Richie, anyone would seem overly animated.  I had just about had it with Josh Peck’s (Oppenheimer) hapless helper who, in an unfunny running joke, keeps getting dismissed from his various roles around camp for his ineptitude. Still, he has a moment with Bates near the end that is so unexpectedly emotionally raw that it caught me entirely by surprise.  If the entire movie had more honest scenes where characters talk to one another so frankly, Landon would have had a more interesting feature on her hands.

A moderately diverting excuse to see three esteemed actresses share the screen, Summer Camp wastes the opportunity to do right by them at every turn.  There are a dozen frustrating missteps for every charming moment, and it becomes puzzling why a film with so much potential continually strikes out.  It’s not an outright disappointment, but it’s close.  For it to work, however, it needed to push its themes past surface-level sentiment to get to something deeper and far more satisfying.