The Deep Blue Sea

Now a new film of the play appears, adapted and directed by Terence Davies with Rachel Weisz in that stellar [Hester Collyer] role and with Rattigan's work in a freshening treatment.

The movie is an exquisite period piece, slow and dank, and unduly persuaded that it's rendering a classic.

[Weisz'] performance that transforms her from actress to movie star.

The best parts of the movie, like the scene with William's mother, involve isolated set pieces in which Weisz interacts with another actor.

A story of passion and its aftermath; of what happens when an unhappy woman goes chasing after something shiny, only to find how quickly it fades.

Davies doesn't provide stylish counterweights to the heavy drama. Any story that starts with a woman writing a suicide note is cheating us of an honest investment in the outcome.

Weisz makes Hester's dilemma interesting for a while, but even an actress as fine as she can't begin to mold the character into someone worth caring about.

By the time she learns love is less about ideal romance than "wiping someone's ass" when they grow old, it's difficult to care about a problem she created for herself.

The character is a victim of her own decisions, but Weisz's bruised performance in The Deep Blue Sea yields empathy for being battered by doomed romanticism.

The heart wants what it wants and all that; it's anybody's guess why that might be.

Rachel Weisz performs a superb star turn here, but I'm still in a deep funk after watching this gloomy drama.

As rumbling and tremendous a meditation on self and suicide as there's ever been onscreen. Director Terence Davies has now made masterpieces across four decades.