The Deep Blue Sea (2012)

The Deep Blue Sea is an intricate, subtle and exquisite looking chamber soap opera, set in post war London of 1950. The spare and brilliant adaptation of one of Britain's greatest 20th century playwrights, Terence Rattigan, is brought to life and very much into film language by another Terence (Davies) a filmmaker's filmmaker. Davies has only produced a handful of films in the last twenty years, and this may be his best.

Please be warned this film is exceptionally slow moving, with gaping, meaningful pauses you could drive a panzer division through. Since all those pauses are fraught with meaning and precise and deeply felt acting, I was not bored. If you like your movies full of dialogue and action, you might asleep before act one closes. It also jumps back and forth in time, and you need to be alert to figure out where you are in the story.

Rachel Weisz plays an lady married to a much older successful judge, who throws away her whole life for love, (or really for good sex) with a younger, dumber war hero (Tom Hiddleston, the bad guy Loki of The Avengers), who is more or less the opposite of the cultured and thoughtful man to whom she is married (Simon Russell Beale). These three actors do wonderful internal work that is full of subtext and deep emotion. They are all perfect, but Weisz is a standout. Hester is a strong, misguided woman trying to find herself in a pre-feminist world and her performance resonates very deeply and hauntingly.

The mystery is why a woman (Hester) would throw away a comfortable, cultured life for unrequited love (of which her eyes are fully open) to a man who may be good in bed, but is in no other way worth it. Her attempted suicide is her first reaction. The question is never answered, but the tragic end of the story, (a failed suicide attempt) still leaves a hopeful crack open in the the door for Hester, who has lost everything, to find a fulfilling life for herself.

The selling point for me, is the stunning looking film itself. Every shot is a glowing work of art, using the drab post war London as a backdrop. There's a long tracking shot during a flashback during the London blitz, that as stunning and moving a moment in any film I've seen this year. The huddled, frightened Londoners cheer themselves up by joining in song. Later, in the present, some drab looking pub goers do likewise singing the Jo Stafford version of "You Belong to Me" under muted and warm light. Of course that song is a fitting subtext for the film..

The film has my highest recommendation, but don't rent it if you're feeling sleepy (or adulterous).