Share

Watch It

On DVD: Now | On Blu-ray: Now

The Deep Blue Sea Review

Movies.com Critics

4.0

Dave White Profile

He's just not that into you. Read full review

Other Critics provided by Metacritic.com

Critics scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 5.0
    82

    out of 100

    Metascore®
    Universal acclaim
    based on a weighted average of all
    critic review scores.

  • 100

    out of 100

    Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

    Exceptionally well-made and completely fearless in its depiction of the widest range of romantic emotions, this is a film as fiercely committed to passion as its heroine, and that's saying a lot.

    Read Full Review

  • 100

    out of 100

    The New York Times A.O. Scott

    To put the matter perhaps more abstractly than such a sensual film deserves, it is about the fate of untameable, irrational desire in a world that does not seem to have a place for it.

    Read Full Review

  • 100

    out of 100

    Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

    In this typically exquisite, nuanced, memory-infused work from master British filmmaker Terence Davies, we believe every minute of the torment of Hester (Rachel Weisz).

    Read Full Review

  • 70

    out of 100

    The Hollywood Reporter Todd McCarthy

    As intensely personal and deeply felt as it is, however, Davies' attempt to breathe new life into Rattigan's 1952 play is a rather bloodless, suffocating thing, lent tragic passion more by its use of Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto than by anything achieved by his star Rachel Weisz and her leading man.

    Read Full Review

  • 80

    out of 100

    Variety Leslie Felperin

    Davies is in fine form here, with luminous performances, especially from Rachel Weisz, rounding out a classy package whose only major problem is it may be a bit too true to its period sensibility and legit origins.

    Read Full Review

  • 80

    out of 100

    Village Voice Nick Pinkerton

    Plumbing disquieting depth, Deep Blue Sea investigates the insoluble dilemma of romantic love: the expectation, contrary to experience, that we can or will find every quality that we want in a single person.

    Read Full Review

  • 80

    out of 100

    The New Yorker David Denby

    Sex is the subtext of everything that happens, yet this may be one of the least erotic movies ever made. It's stern and noble, very much in the Rattigan spirit. [26 March 2012, p.108]

  • 88

    out of 100

    Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

    The film most of all is about Hester, who stares out the window and smokes.

    Read Full Review

  • See all The Deep Blue Sea reviews at Metacritic.com

Fan Reviews provided by

1

Started awful and got worse by cilavine
Samuel Goldwyn famously said that he wanted his movies to "start with a volcano and end with a bang (or an earthquake, or something)". This movie, which could win the prize for worst first date movie ever, started dead and then went comatose. It was if Chekhov and Tolstoy wrote a novel that Mel Brooks adapted for the screen while drunk. The plot was simple: a woman makes a bad bet and then doubles down. You, the audience, get to watch all of the flashbacks leading to her repeatedly bad decisions and hope that somehow she will display a small amount of intelligence or character arc and recognize her self-destructive behavior. If so, you will be disappointed. This film had everything: unsympathetic and uninteresting characters, speaking mostly unbelievable and incomprehensible dialog, played with overwrought acting and then framed with the most leaden, headache inducing music - ever. There was little in this movie that was subtle or left to the imagination.

3

The Deep Blue Sea by Peneflix
"Between the devil and the deep blue sea" originated in the Bible and has been a universal phrase throughout history; its major implication addresses a choice. Beautifully acted, but a morale depressant. "The Deep Blue Sea" revolves around "Hester" and her choice; Rachel Weisz imbues Hester with the intensity needed to portray a woman so blindly, passionately in love, forsaking everything to bask in the aura of her obsession: "Freddie" (Tom Hiddleston, F. Scott Fitzgerald in "Midnight in Paris") a beautiful, rum -guzzling, fun- seeking boy with the intellectual depth of a puddle after a five minute mist... Another ubiquitous expression "tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all" (Alfred Lord Tennyson). "The Deep Blue Sea" disturbingly ponders Hester's answer and choice... TWO & 1/2 STARS!! ***For full review please visit peneflix.com

2

I'm so disappointed....... by Nacho Baggo
This movie was so highly reviewed that I made it a priority to see it as an Oscar contender. What a disappointment. I had no feeling towards Weisz's character at all and that is the key element. Nothing in the character development made me want to be on her side. She was unhappy with her loveless marraige and I couldn't care less. She takes a lover whose relationship is self destructive to both and I couldn;t care less. The passion was dull. A huge dud for me.

1

The Deep Blue Sea by shane212
A very slowly--too slowly--paced film, over-artistically filmed in soft focus and very very darkly lit (all shots in dim interiors and dark nighttime streets). Rachel Weisz' performance was awesome and the other actors were also very good, but the script seemed pared down to ultra-minimal. This is a mood picture, wildly over-exaggerated by featuring Samuel Barber's lugubrious violin concerto pulling, tugging, and ripping at your heart strings.The morale: love is not enough when you have one member of the couple demoralized by lack of any career goal and the other suffering from a major depression (pass the antidepressants, PLEASE).

2

THE DEEP BLUE SEA by thedoctor777
This movie is slow and drawn out. It looks like it was filmed as a B movie. The lighting is bad from start to finish. The storyline is an old one done to death, married woman has an affair and gets caught. This was one I kept wishing would just come to an end as soon as possible. Sorry to all the people who worked hard on this film, cameramen, soundmen, etc; but none of it came together for me.

2

Languorous and confusing by eajsalzer
This film may be faithful to the play from which it is adapted. Some elements are good, but it is exceedingly slow and confusing. It takes a very long time for the plot, to the extent that it exists, to be revealed. It is a real effort to work up any degree of interest thereafter as one has worked so hard to figure out what on earth is going on. Am sorry we attended.

3

Well-acted but melodramatic and unsurprising. by brunowe
Wife of a judge has an affair with an RAF officer. Rachel Weisz does a good job going through the emotional wringer and she has good support. Simon Russel Beale does a fine job as a judge and one can see why she'd go for the RAF pilot (not so easy to see why she marred him in the first place). Tim Hiddleston (Loki from Thor, FYI) is fine as the paramour. There are elements to what her character goes through the seem overwrought and the plot of being caught between an unstable relationship with a lover and a stable, but unromantic marriage, seems shopworn.

2

One big yawn by Reel_Deal_Gal
The first clue should have been that there was zero dialogue for about fhe first ten minutes of the movie. But then there was a sexy scene the made me foolishly hope it would pick up. It did not. It was dreary, sad, characters with no real key to why or any real character development at all. Sadly, the best part of the movie was Tom Hiddleston's butt- an all-too-brief scene of entwining legs and derrieres. Alas, it did not portend of the boredom to come. Thank God the music got louder at the end so I could wake up to get the heck out of there. Don't waste money and more importantly, a precious two (seemed like 4) hours you will never get back!

2

Good Performances but too depressing by Powerhugs
As much as I adore Rachel Weisz, this film is far too depressing to have much empathy for any of the characters...Essentially this love triangle that is set in postwar England has some good scenery and a great Violin Concerto in the score but not much else kept me from wishing this torturous screenplay come to a conclusion already...Ugh!!! I think the film could have been improved somewhat if it was a little brighter but the dye was cast I'm afraid..

3

The Deep Blue Sea by cathyweiss
Here's a dated movie and I mean dated, although it could have been a great period piece. Beautifully filmed, great costumes and sets, all very accurate for post war England. But there is little to no story, just the character study of a woman in love. It was depressing to me how love is depicted: it comes on like a desease, with no rhyme or reason. And takes over the mind and body of the innocent beholder. It provides no pleasure, as passion is not depicted as a happy state. And drives a person nuts. The alternative to love is a boring and dull life with little to no connection to "loved ones". Perhaps this makes a better play than a movie as my expectations are greater for a movie.

Advertisement