Review #901 - Deep Blue Sea, The (2011)
THE SCOOPDirector: Terence Davies
Cast: Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddlestone, Simon Russell Beale
Plot: The wife of a British Judge is caught in a self-destructive love affair with a Royal Air Force pilot.
Genre: Drama / Romance
Awards: Nom. for 1 Golden Globe - Best Leading Actress (Drama)
Runtime: 98min
Rating: M18 for a scene of sexuality and nudity.
TRAILER:
OST:
IN RETROSPECT
“Beware of
passion, Hester. It always leads to
something ugly.”
I
have never seen Rachel Weisz so depressed.
You just wanna jump into the screen and hug her. But of course, you might end up with a face
of unbelievable flatness. Weisz plays
Hester who stares into empty space with lonely, sad eyes, and is in a state of
confusion most of the time.
In
one key scene, she begs for Freddie (Tom Hiddlestone) to forgive her and be
with her for just one more night. Freddie,
by the way, is a Royal Air Force pilot who Hester falls in love with over a few
months in an affair that threatens to destroy her stagnant marriage with an
esteemed British judge (Simon Russell
Beale).
For
some reason, I kept thinking of David Lean’s Brief Encounter (1945) while watching The Deep Blue Sea. Maybe it
is because both (British) films explore themes of love and passion, and maybe
even lust, with characters crippled by societal expectations on how to behave
and act. However, time is ticking, and
by extension, life is ticking… away.
So
what and how do we make of forbidden romance?
Terence Davies, the accomplished director of films such as Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) and The Long Day Closes (1992), leaves us
with no answers, but an experience that probes the essence of memory and
emotional endurance.
Weisz’s
performance is extraordinary and well-deserving of her Golden Globe
nomination. Her character breaks your
heart, not merely because she is in dire need of sympathy, but because she
might just be the one to be blamed for her predicament.
Set
in a time when the memory of war still haunts the mind, Davies’ film gives us
Hester’s dilemma of being caught between the Devil and the deep blue sea (where
the film takes its title from) – a world of joyous passion with an unstable but
charming guy, or a world of luxury and stability with a loving but passionless
man?
The Deep Blue
Sea
is ultimately an ode to forbidden love and passion, a symphonic arrangement of
sorts (the fantastic use of Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto must be applauded)
of the hidden desires and emotions that put incredible weight on a woman’s
shoulders, submerging her not into the deep blue sea, but a dark abyss that she
may possibly never recover from, psychologically or otherwise.
GRADE: B+ (8/10 or 3.5 stars)
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