I don’t even know why I’m trying to write things right now. I’m still full of cold/flu (I think now that it actually is the flu) and I don’t even know which way is up. I don’t feel terrible per se, I just feel completely loopy. And my head aches. I’ve made it to the office this morning but I think I’m going to head home at lunch.
I hate being sick. I’m such a cranky sick person. I knew immediately yesterday morning that things just weren’t right when I woke up wanting to scream/cry/collapse in defeat. After some small amount of convincing from my roommates, I admitted that I was just a lost cause and went back to bed. I’m not quite so bad today, but I’m not great either.
And I’m supposed to be going away for the weekend! Gah! I hope this thing goes away. I don’t want to miss the trip.
I’m not sure any thoughts I have about any movie at the moment are going to be all that coherent or fair. But I’ll try. I was mostly awake watching The Deep Blue Sea last night. So I at least know what happened. I think?
The Deep Blue Sea is not to be confused with that masterpiece of shark insanity Deep Blue Sea. These are two very different movies. So you know. Deep Blue Sea is maybe more fun, with that sharks and all, but The Deep Blue Sea is probably the better movie. Cinematically speaking at least.
Terence Davies’s film is a melodrama in the best way possible. I love melodramas, I really do. Rachel Weisz’s Hester, the wife of a prominent lawyer, finds herself caught between a passionless marriage and loveless affair. The movie is full of emotions, long stares out of windows, tearful confessions, protestations of love. The main action takes place over one day but the story plays out over a series of months, told through flashback. The flashbacks are appropriately hazy, either showing a dreamlike perfection or a reality obscured by the fickleness of memory.
The more I think about the movie, the more I kind of like it. But really, it’s a pretty slow, plodding affair. It works more towards the end than the beginning. By structuring the story the way he does, I feel like Davies prevents us from understanding and feeling empathy for Hester until the end. I never quite got a grasp of what the affairs catalyst was and I found it hard to feel sympathy for Hester for most of the movie.
The performances throughout are all top notch. Rachel Weisz, Simon Russell Beale as her befuddled but earnest husband, and oh my goodness Tom Hiddleston as Hester’s lover Freddie. My favorite scene is towards the end, when Hester and Freddy have it out behind the pub. It’s clear the direction things are going, Freddie accepts and embraces it, Hester fights desperately against it.
Will you judge me if a big part of the reason I wanted to see this movie was because of Tom Hiddleston? Of course you won’t! How can you?
I <3 Tom Hiddleston. I wouldn’t call this movie a Must See by any stretch but there are some lovely performances, some moments I adored. It is pretty slow and doesn’t quite reach the emotional pitch it needs to though. But I am also full of flu right now. So there’s that. Listen to me at your own risk. I’m going to work on going home now. I need to go back to bed. UGH.
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