Relics, Words and Other Things

Based on a play by Terence Rattigan, the film is at once operatic and constrained. Its small-scale story feels strangely at odds with the grandiose score and rich cinematography. But these jangling elements capture something of Hester’s misdirected passions. She is a woman so fixated on the idea of love that she wears herself down against the cold, hard edges of her reality. This is not a love song, no matter how badly she wants it to be.

The Deep Blue Sea reviewed for The Weekly Review