The Deep Blue Sea

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

No giant sharks here. Melodrama folks. Genuine melodrama that feels like it was ripped right out of the early 50's when it's set. I didn't know the story or the play going in, I didn't even know the tone.

The austere Britishness of it all was a bit of a shock that took some kneading to get through but it really ends up being rather essential to the themes and tone. And it's such a specific tone, a very outdated one at that, it certainly isn't going to be to everyones tastes. It can be hard to take this level of melodrama and I found myself swaying back and forth several times but in the end there was much more about this film I enjoyed than I didn't.

Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston and Simon Russell Beale are all great. Pitch perfect. The film somewhat needlessly jumps around in time a bit but it does allows for great use of some beautiful Schubert, almost as if they wrote around this music the way it fits so perfectly. 

Where I have trouble is look. I'm gonna be picky here to a degree but on the big screen, those focus pulling issues are rather unacceptable. It also makes a terrible case for the continued use of 35mm film as opposed to digital. Most of the film is shot in very very low light, which most digital cameras today wouldn't have any trouble dealing with but show up very muddy here for the majority of the duration. Added to that enough light glow and excessive diffuse to make even Janusz Kaminski jealous, a pet peeve of mine, and you end up with an image that does nothing for me.

Now it becomes a little trickier, because I have trouble with the pacing, however that is entirely intentional and necessary for the style of film this is. It's one of those things I can appreciate more than actually enjoying completely. It just so happens to be the case that I appreciate the style immensely, it was a breath of fresh air from all the summer blockbusters coming out. 

It's a simple little drama and everything about it is so British it's almost funny. I was prepping for a full on tragic ending but it leaves of in a much more interesting place than that, which I loved too. I doubt I'll see a film like this for a very long to so I'll enjoy this one while I can.