The Deep Blue Sea

Running time: 98 mins

Cinequest 22 culminates with the latest work from one of contemporary cinema's most extraordinary masters. The Deep Blue Sea, Terence Davies' adaptation of the Terence Rattigan play, joins his astonishing body of work that includes Distant Voices, Still Lives, The House of Mirth, The Neon Bible, and Of Time and the City. Once again Davies dives deep into the human psyche, revisiting his themes of desire, hope, fear, loss and the effect of memory on our fragile sense of being.

Oscar winner Rachel Weisz is Hester, and delivers an intimate and deeply moving performance as a woman willing to sacrifice her marriage and social standing for a passionate affair that she intuitively knows will fail.

Set in 1950s London, Hester escapes from what she sees as her mundane life into the arms of the brash, self-centered RAF pilot Freddie (played superbly by Thor's Tom Hiddleston). But she soon finds herself in dangerous territory, torn between the life she desires―with a man who loves her less than she loves him―and a secure, yet stifling life with her pedestrian husband. Hester is caught between two awful alternatives: the devil and the Deep Blue Sea.

Weisz brings to Hester an emotional rawness that is some of the best work of her career, while director Davies and cinematographer Florian Hoffmeister infuse post-war London with an elegance and beauty that evoke the memories and longing behind a lovingly worn photograph. The Deep Blue Sea is incandescent in its emotional power and utterly stunning to behold.

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