Review of The Deep Blue Sea (1994) by Cheryl S — 11 Jan 2014

Collyer's Mother (Barbara Jefford): Beware of passion, Hester. It always leads to something ugly.

Hester Collyer (Rachel Weisz): What would you replace it with?

Collyer's Mother (Barbara Jefford): A guarded enthusiasm. It's safer.

Brilliant! The cast were superb, especially Rachel Weisz who can make a character like Hester Collyer be infuriating, needy, and selfish one moment and then lost, vulnerable, fragile and sympathetic the next. She was absolutely enigmatic; you loved and hated her just the same! Tom Hiddleston was also wonderful (especially when Freddie leaves for Rio); everything that Freddie couldn't say in words, he spoke volumes with his eyes-- that was such a beautiful scene. It was interesting and refreshing how there were no clear heroes or villains in this film; the characters were multi-faceted and they were all flawed in some way, shape or form but all similarly trying to deal with their individual unhappiness the best they could. The pacing of this film was definitely a little glacial but the languidness just serves to enhance the overall tone of the film and each character's dissatisfaction with their lives. This film was definitely a bit more cerebral than most of the token-shoot-them-up-summer-blockbusters which tends to overcompensate for the lack of depth, content or acting by the enormity of the body count, property damage or explosions; this film actually encourages its audience to read between the lines, think for themselves and draw their own conclusions, instead of being spoon-fed answers.