Summer (2002)

Longtime friends Charlie, Miller and Stef have just graduated from university in the Québec town where they grew up. Before they start their adult lives, they are hanging out for the summer, which marks the emotional end of their youth. The end of that youth is punctuated by Charlie and Miller having lived together through university in the house where Charlie grew up - which was a second home for Miller in their childhood - and which Charlie's parents are selling now that the boys have graduated and are moving on with their lives. Charlie, the alpha of the group, is affectionately referred to as the Chairman, especially as it applies to their summer ritual of hanging out at the local public pool, where they have their set spot that no one is to intrude without their permission. Outwardly, Charlie, with no set plans, is hanging onto their youth the hardest, he largely dictating what the friends do, continuing his womanizing ways and playing solitaire on his computer late at night,... Stef is a struggling actress with self-esteem issues, especially as all the commercial spots for which she is considered usually go to the same actress, Eve. Stef has recently started sleeping with Brad, an actor with a modicum of success, if only because she believes success breeds success. This move doesn't sit well with her friends, who believe she and a new member of their social circle, a bar singer named Shane who is talented but also struggling - that struggle more with what to do as he doesn't believe singing is his life - are meant to be together. But the friend who is facing the biggest struggle emotionally is Miller. His immediate future is mapped out for him as he and another friend named Jake will be starting a magazine in the fall in Toronto. Ella, Miller's girlfriend of two years, is a driven young woman, she focusing on her pre-med summer school classes so that she too can go to school in Toronto in the fall to be with Miller. However, Miller is resisting the notion of being an adult and all the responsibility that goes along with it, which means doing anything purposefully to kibosh the move to Toronto.