The Deep Blue Sea
2011
**½
Director: Terence Davies
Cast: Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston, Simon Russell Beale, Harry Hadden-Paton, Ann Mitchell, Sarah Kants, Barbara Jefford, Oliver Ford Davies
This leisurely paced adaptation of Terence Rattigan's 1952 play takes place during one day in 1950s London, where Hester Collyer's romantic troubles have brought her to the brink of suicide. She is married to a reliable but dull judge, but passionately in love with a reckless ex-RAF pilot who doesn't return her feelings. Terence Davies' film is beautifully mounted and strongly acted, but cold as ice. It deals with big emotions without arousing any. Since Hester is the architect of her own misfortune, it's difficult to sympathise with her plight, let alone understand the desperation that leads to the opening scene. This stuffy love drama is not to be confused with Renny Harlin's Deep Blue Sea, which was occasionally entertaining.
