Review of By the Sea (2015) by Lilia R — 15 Nov 2015

"By the Sea" is an empathic journey into the lives of Vanessa (Angelina Jolie Pitt) and Roland (Brad Pitt), a writer and his wife, in a pitiful state of relationship. Any long term relationship will have experienced at least one near death season and "By the Sea" exemplifies such a moment in purest of forms.

The details will vary from couple to couple but the depth of drudgery, pain, and misery are universal. Her beauty and poise soften the bleakness of her blank gaze, barely audible slurred speech, and less than desirable personality traits.

His alcohol enabled caring demeanor and belief in his wife give the couple a glimmer of hope. Slow self destruction in the grandest of settings, overlooking the sea, only begins to tell the tale. The artistic genius is evident in every perfectly contrived shot in a way luring, guiding, and giving the audience an avenue to visit the place of despair which would otherwise be buried in drink, pills and smoke literally and figuratively.

The choice in dialogue volume and soundtrack consummate the stark journey. The story unfolds slowing laying out how this couple came to be in such a state using a narrative path of a literal peephole into newlyweds next door.

Here you get to the core of the problem and ultimately its conclusion. The realism of every step and turn perfectly captured the essence of going through such depths in a relationship.