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The Deep Blue Sea REVIEWED BY MARK ADAMS


Terence Davies deftly adapts Terence Rattigan’s acclaimed play The Deep Blue Sea to craft an ele- gantly staged, sublimely moody, tale of painful love all set against the backdrop of post-War London as people struggle to rebuild their lives. The setting will be a familiar one to admirers of Davies’ work, while a moving lead performance by Rachel Weisz should guarantee appreciative attention. That post-war era provides a familiar setting for


Davies, whose acclaimed films Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Long Day Closes were also set in that period, and while those films were rich in atmos- phere and staging, with The Deep Blue Sea the pain and pleasure of love is at the fore in Rattigan’s moving and uncompromising story of a woman’s fear of loneliness and the unreliable nature of love. This year marks the centenary of the birth of


Terence Rattigan, whose plays dwelt on British insecurities about sex and class. The Deep Blue Sea is regarded as his masterpiece with its love trian- gle reflecting the state of the nation in the early 1950s as the country attempted to find its feet after the Second World War. The love triangle is between Hester Collyer


(Weisz), the beautiful wife of high-court judge Sir William Collyer (Beale) and Freddie Page (Hiddle- ston) a young ex-RAF pilot with whom she has fallen passionately in love. Davies has worked on the original story to focus it entirely from Hester’s point of view, and with the use of carefully framed


SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS


UK. 2011. 98mins Director/screenplay Terence Davies Production companies Camberwell/Fly Film Productions, UKFC, Film4, Protagonist Pictures, Lipsync Productions International sales Protagonist Pictures, www.protagonistpictures. com Producers Sean O’Connor, Kate Ogborn Executive producers Katherine Butler, Lisa Marie Russo, Peter Hampden, Norman Merry Cinematography Florian Hoffmeister Editor David Charap Production designer James Merifield Main cast Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston, Simon Russell Beale, Karl Johnson, Ann Mitchell, Harry Hadden-Paton, Sarah Kants


flashbacks, draws the viewer into the relationships from her perspective. The film opens with a delightful rising crane


shot that eventually focuses on Hester as she looks out of the widow of the vaguely seedy boarding house in a bombed London street where she lives with Freddie. As the opening credits start we hear the last words of a suicide note she has written to him, and she moves back from the window and prepares to take her own life. The film then weaves back and forth through


different time periods as it tells the story of Hester, her husband and her early dalliances with Freddie, setting them alongside the repercussions of her suicide attempt. Hester enjoys a comfortable homelife with her


wealthy lawyer husband, but when she meets handsome ex-RAF pilot Freddie during a visit to the Sunningdale Golf Club, she falls head-over- heals in love. Despite her sense of morality, the sheer passion she feels drives her into an adulter- ous affair. With the story blurring between the aftermath


of her suicide attempt — she is found by her land- lady, tended by a doctor and awaits Freddie’s return — the film dwells on other moments, such as her recollection of being in a crowded Tube station during the Blitz, with stoical Londoners singing along as bombs explode above them; the moment in an art gallery when it is clear she and Freddie share no cultural common-ground, and the profound and intense happiness she


feels dancing and singing with him at a local pub. Davies’ acknowledged attention to detail are


wonderfully evident here in this beautiful evoca- tion of the period. The production design (by James Merifield) and cinematography (Florian Hoffmeister) combine perfectly to present a glimpse into a bygone but still familiar world, with the densely decorated rooms and packed pubs resonating with the feel of the 1940s and 1950s. Weisz is at her very best as the tormented Hes-


ter. When she falls for Freddie it is the first time she has felt true erotic love, and when she feels he is drawing away from her the pain of its possible loss is unbearable. Her natural poise sets perfectly against her character’s almost obsessive desire. And alongside her Tom Hiddleston confirms his reputation as a rising star, delivering an honest and believable performance as a rather shallow man still harking back to his wartime glories. The rather mannered nature of the dialogue


aids the sense of moody melodrama, though it may also be a barrier to audiences more at ease with modern scripts. There is a sense the drama and passion — intense and all-consuming though it is — is at arm’s length. Though it is elegantly staged and intense, the film is not ultimately moving. The Deep Blue Sea, however, will entrance and


delight fans of Terence Davies — and they are many and loyal — and should see the film a suc- cessful arthouse release and a must on the film festival circuit.


September 12, 2011 Screen International at the Toronto Film Festival 9 n


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