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The Deep Blue Sea

Terence Davies' latest is a beautifully shot and deeply atmospheric melodrama.

Released in cinemas 25th November 2011.

Revered director Terence Davies returns with his first film in 11 years, following 2000's elegant The House of Mirth. Adapting Terence Rattigan's post-war play of the same name, The Deep Blue Sea is a beautifully shot and deeply atmospheric melodrama, boasting note-perfect performances.

Rachel Weisz is captivating as Hester, wife of staid, but thoroughly decent and respected judge William (Simon Russell Beale). Set in the early 1950s, it opens with Hester's attempted suicide in a gas-filled flat, the camera swirling through flashbacks to an affair with dashing wartime pilot Freddie (Tom Hiddleston). Davies stumbles with this messy montage, soundtracked by jarring violins, but the film soon finds its stride as it begins a compelling narrative.

In a desperately sad story of the imbalance and unfairness of love, Hester is a riveting, tragic character in Weisz's hands, as she forgoes security for passion in almost martyr-like fashion. Thor star Hiddleston is electrifying as the cocky, immature but shell-shocked survivor of WWII, whose vitriolic reaction to Hester's suicide is at times hard to watch. It's an incredibly multi-faceted performance, making sense of an impetuous, unlikeable character and making him just as sympathetic as the wronged husband. Talking of which, Beale's quiet performance fades - deliberately - as the passion blazes between Weisz and Hiddleston. It almost works as an evocative companion piece - a more depressing what if? counterpart - to Brief Encounter.

Davies sets up some stunning, languid scenes that speak volumes of the mood of the period: the crowded pub singing You Belong To Me in a capella unison, the tense reminder that life is fleeting during a long tracking shot showing Aldwych station doubling up as a bomb shelter. However, it's the details that stand out, with two very different women of a certain age passing judgment on Hester in some finely written scenes: William's rude mother (afternoon tea has never been so fraught) and Freddie's astute landlady, respectfully presiding over their sham version of love.

The Deep Blue Sea has a depth and richness - soft-focus, smoke-filled and nicotine-stained, with Weisz's voluptuous beauty making her isolated days feeding coins into a gas meter even sadder. Rattigan's story is a mature, brutally honest romantic tragedy, but this film has a curious emotional void. It's as if Davies has avoided emotional manipulation to the point where the audience is disconnected, and merely observing.

A somewhat ponderous, yet always perceptive film, it works immensely well as a faithful period piece.

Rating: 8/10