The Deep Blue Sea Review
By David Kempler
Bury This One At Sea
Terence Rattigan's acclaimed play, "The Deep Blue Sea", has been adapted for the screen by Terence Davies and, having never seen the play, it is almost unfathomable to believe that it was ever acclaimed. I'll take it a step further: it's difficult to believe that the play didn't close during its first act. This is a stinker, the likes of which makes it a mortal lock for the worst ten list of 2012. If you are looking for me to toss any compliments at this one, you might as well stop reading now.
The setting is Britain, post World War II. From its opening moments we are subjected to melodramatic music that is an omen of the overwrought tripe that is on its way. Hester (Rachel Weisz) and Freddie (Tom Hiddleston) are star-crossed lovers. What makes it incredibly curious is the fact that there is less sexual energy between them than exists between a lamp and a potato chip. I kept waiting for something to materialize that raised the temperature, but that moment never arrived.
Hester is attempting suicide because of her unhappiness with her social life and choices in men. In flashback we learn that she left her husband (Simon Russell Beale), a stodgy older gentleman who is a successful judge that makes Freddie seem like a major hunk. The judge appears to be in his sixties, yet still lives in mortal fear of his mother. Why Hester married him in the first place is a major mystery. Freddie represents a different end of the spectrum by being young. That he is an absolute moron who is insufferable beyond description, makes him a strange man to escape to. I'm telling you that nothing made much sense to me here unless we are to believe that Hester is one of the most simple females to ever be born. Since we are not led in that direction, it's unclear what makes her act.
A special shout out to whoever was in charge of the music, because as bad as everything was about "The Deep Blue Sea", the music might be even worse. While everything is being played onscreen so poorly that it might be a satire (it's not), the score gets louder at every phony dramatic scene. "The Deep Blue Sea" left me blue and wishing I could not see.
