The Green Sea

A fine Irish genre/indie film. Somewhat customary for Irish genre work, the film has a very solid dramatic foundation with slimmer genre elements layered on top. It probably wouldn't be too hard to frame this as a full-on drama simply by tinkering with the styling, instead director Randal Plunkett goes for a darker, more mysterious approach and adds minor mystery and horror touches to his first full-length feature. The result is a rather stylish affair that heralds a promising career.

The film revolves around Simone, a bitter woman who lives alone in the countryside. She drinks a lot, listens to metal and spends her time trying to write her second novel. One night, driving home wasted, she hits a young girl on the side of the road. Reluctantly, she loads her into her car and lets her spend the night. The girl won't reveal where she's from and even though Simone isn't looking for company, she can't just kick her to the curb.

The Green Sea is a film that thrives on atmosphere. The soundtrack and soundscapes in particular stand out. Not even so much the metal tracks, which are more incidental and little more than background noise, but the haunting melodies and distorted rumbles that give the film a dense mood. Coupled with a grim and desaturated color palette, a lingering camera and sharply edited segments that drive up the tension, it makes for an impressively stylized film.

Plunkett does well to keep the mystery intact while revealing just enough to give the necessary context to the plot. The performances are solid, and the finale is memorable. The Green Sea loses a tiny bit of steam in the middle part, I guess a runtime closer to 90 minutes would've fitted the film a little better, other than that I had no real complaints about this one. I'm already looking forward to seeing what Plunkett will come up with next.

Captures the atmosphere of the rather bleak coast of Ireland setting the scene for a thoughtful unfolding exploration of grief via a fairly common MacGuffin which is guessable early on but that doesn't distract too much (otherwise maybe a 10) - but the two leads carry it off very well with sympathy and good chemistry between them. Dramatic sequences and flashbacks are not over the top, bloody but not gory. The metaphorical motif is good and is carried through well. A very good sound track reinforces the spooky aspects, again without being over the top. All in all much better than many movies in a similar vein.

Katherine Isabelle's depth in her character Simone kept me on the "edge of my seat" wondering what seemingly bipolar switch in scene purpose would come around the corner to scare me or calm me down. Couple Katherine's superb performance with Hazel Doupe's quietly subdued stinging silence in powerfully getting her message across to the audience this film sparked a horizon full of thoughts, fears, hopes, doubts and insight into the span oppositecapabilities of mankind and our possible choices of behavior in life.

A must see!

I wasn't expecting this to be as good as it was. I am not a big fan of films on Prime or Netflix and so settled down to be mildly entertained. I had never seen a film by Randal P before apart from a Zombie movie on Youtube. Later I discovered this is his first feature film and that's why. I have to say I thought the cinematography in the film was exquisite. I enjoyed the pace and the characters and was gripped throughout. Would highly recommend. Well done to Randal on his 1st film and looking forward to the next one.

When I came across this film I was intrigued. An independent Irish film starring the awesome Katherine Isabelle with a trailer that made it look like a mind-bending tale of questionable realities. The type of film I really gravitate towards. I was even more intrigued when I saw that it was directed by an Irish aristocrat.

Unfortunately it doesn't work.

The trailer had prepared me for a film where the physical existence of "The Kid" was up for debate. The fact she doesn't have a name and she's a character in what Katherine Isabelle is writing adds to that idea. It's the same trope we've seen for decades in many different types of film, most notably in Fight Club. Plunkett then procedes to shoot the film as if that is going to be the truth. The only person who talks to or sees "The Kid" is Isabelle, persistant hints at the traumatic back story of Isabelle, the fact she's almost always drunk. A problematic character dealing with her issues in a very unhealthy way.

It turns out that's not what we should have been focusing on. The quirks of "The Kid" are the more important factors. The strange way she reacts to coffee is notable, but given the directions the film eventually goes in, there should have been more. If we are going to have such a radical change of direction and genre then in my opinion it should have been built up to. Have more hints that she's 'off' and we will follow you down the strange (and mildly confusing) paths the film goes into by the end. As it is the revelations come out of nowhere and are under-explored.

There are also very basic things that the 21st Baron Dunsany could have corrected. We've seen the scenario where a problematic character has their car graffitied, but when it's black paint on a black jeep, you can't actually read it. Having title cards that are red text on a black background also turns out to be very hard to read on a tablet screen (which lets face it is how this movie is mostly going to be seen).

Randal Plunkett had an idea. I'm not entirely sure what that idea was, because a little more exposition would have been helpful. He got that idea made with an excellent cult actress and turned it into a mediocre film. Shame. I think this had potential.