The Sea

Man Booker Prize-winning novels are too hard to adapt, and except for a few hits like Schindler's List (1993) and Life of Pi (2012), all adaptations are either dull or totally a mess. This tragic drama is one such non-electrifying film.

Max Morden (Ciarán Hinds) is an aged art historian who has come back to the seaside place where he used to spend his vacations as a child. He is currently grieving the loss of a loved one and is also hoping to find peace from a childhood incident which made him the way he is now. The story follows Morden's life as flashbacks of his time with his newfound friends, a twin siblings, flip flop between the episodes of present tense.

Hinds is the only aspect of the film which is appealing. The supporting characters are too abrupt in their approach, making the film look like it was conceived for people who have already read the book. Even for those who have, the lackluster, non-linear screenplay will induce ennui, just enough to put them to sleep if they are not startled by the sudden, repetitive crescendos towards the end. Banville clearly fails as a scriptwriter, trying to correct some of his novel's mistakes by adding extra salt to the already salty water. Brown's direction is also at fault, as the cast often look puzzled in their own characters' skins. The young actor who plays a young Morden is terrible.

The Sea is an average book exploring loss and grief and how a man tries and miserably fails to fix up his life post the events. The film is a lot less convincing, mostly because the sliding sequences just do not bring about any point that the author might have originally tried to convey. Read the book and move on to Kiran Desai's "The Inheritance of Loss".

BOTTOM LINE: Stephen Brown's "The Sea" is a lowbrow adaptation of a lowbrow fiction which can be best understood by reading its original source. Wait for TV premiere.

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? NO

By lil' I mean not too many characters, so the few shown kindled a spark in the viewer to the warm and sensitive nature of the ones shewed. The background kept harking back to a grey and gloomy setting while in its stead we are back in the present and things look colorful and teeming with delicious flavor. The pall that seems to mingle with the theme really never is truly diminished yet the candor of the story really shines through and gives you a joyful almost singular start. You really want to see what this is all about but not so much you want to escape from the protagonists sojourn into his own profound escape. I just get a sense that things didn't pan out the way he hoped but in the bargain he seemed to get a lot more. Very introspective, very cold and bleak at times while others the moment seems to linger and resonate with all that is living in the moment. One line that strikes and jolts one out of apathy and self-imposed resignation, when his wife tells him, 'You are always living in the past'. It seems he was always so worried about all the possible things that could happen he sometimes forgot to simply let go and really give it your all in the nonce. The scenery was ample and sweet warming me at times and at others giving me slight chills; the score was eerie at moments and others it really tugged at my heartstrings pulling me thither and hither, whilst all the ancillary characters enriched the natural progression of the plot with stylistic courses; and finally a culminating to a glorious ending which for some reason seems to be the very beginning of the protagonist... Cool flix, recommend it.

Lost in a fog of alcohol and memory pain, Max returns to the seaside town where his family summered when he was a boy. Told across three timelines, we feel the jumble of his thoughts and the hopelessness of his present situation. Most compelling are the flashbacks of his youth, where he befriends a well to do family, and becomes entangled with their children, developing a crush on their young daughter. There's some beautiful cinematography, and parts of a fascinating tale, but overall this is a little muddled to be a true recommendation. The alternating timelines are handled well, but I guess the viewer is a little shortchanged, in wanting more of a firm resolution. Worth a mild recommendation, for the solid acting and interesting premise. Thumbs in the middle.

Following the death of his wife, Max Morden (Ciarán Hinds) returns to his childhood seaside world. He stays with Miss Vavasour (Charlotte Rampling) from his past and a trauma from childhood comes rushing back. As a child, he befriends twins Chloe Grace and Myles Grace from the town. Myles is mute and Chloe is mercurial. They have a rambunctious house with parents Connie (Natascha McElhone) and Carlo (Rufus Sewell) along with young nanny Rose.

The present day story is a bit too jumbled. Certainly, the film is doing something with memories and holding back a big reveal. The back and forth between the different times with the accompanying confusing rekindled memories is a big hurdle. The present day flow is compromised. On the other hand, the past story is very compelling. I like the weird kids, the weird parents, and the mysterious Rose situation. It would be better with a simplified present day reveal and a straight forward past narrative story.

This film adaptation of John Banville's book by the same name, is irritatingly compelling and ultimately lacklustre in a really intriguingly enjoyable kind of way… that probably doesn't make sense right now, but by the end of the film you'll understand, or at least begin to understand – much like the plot of the film, which starts off slow but builds to a very pleasing climax.

Initially it's somewhat up and down - getting lost in its own narrative at times, with no clear intention of where the story's heading. Once we become invested in the characters they begin to reveal the humanity of the story which is a very emotional recounting of the glory of past life experiences, and the harrowing reality of the progression of life for our main character, Max Morden.

Beautiful warm and cold colour grades serve to separate the cheerful, innocent flashbacks from the much bleaker present day narrative. Every image and colour is used effectively to add to the story, and coupled with engaging performances from every actor present, this makes for a seamless viewing experience that's unique and enjoyable – although somewhat slow in its pacing at times. Where the film really struggles is in its efforts to manage the various narrative strands and how they play with each other. Unfortunately, it fails to uphold each strand all the time – sometimes leaving you wishing that the next flashback could come sooner, rather than later.

Simplicity is at the foundation of any creation, and it's from there you build on the layers to develop the project – "The Sea" skipped a few levels and tried to accomplish too much in its narrative at times, and while ultimately a simple, very well made film, it loses focus and dips too often to maintain the fantastic tone it sets for itself.