No, Summer in February isn’t a lighthearted beach party movie set on the Australian coast — it’s a romantic drama set in England before the first world war, a time and place that star Dan Stevens knows all too well.
The story, adapted by Jonathan Smith from his eponymous novel, centers on the real-life love triangle between young Alfred Munnings (Dominic Cooper) — an equine painter who would eventually find fame and knighthood — his friend Captain Gilbert Evans (Stevens), and his fellow artist Florence Carter-Wood (Emily Browning). Even though the film technically has nothing to do with Downton Abbey, the two seem to have plenty of similarities — expect lots of smoldering, longing looks, gorgeous costumes, and a tragic ending that may as well have been scripted by Julian Fellowes himself. (Are we absolutely certain he didn’t time travel here from 1914?)
