Angelina Jolie Pitt directs herself and husband Brad in “By the Sea,” which is mostly eye-candy, especially for Angie fans
– Film Review By Cate Marquis –
“By The Sea” is a very pretty film – pretty people, pretty locations, pretty clothes, pretty sets full of pretty furniture – all prettily filmed by gifted cinematographer Christian Berger. It is also a pretty dull film.
Roland (Brad Pitt) and Vanessa (Angelina Jolie Pitt), a well-off American couple, arrive in style in a sleek 1967 silver Citroen convertible at a hotel on the French coast. While Vanessa seems resentful to be there, the two make an entrance like movie stars – which they actually are.
The sun-drenched, winding road and quaint little town suggest the ’50s or ’60s but Vanessa’s stylish clothes say the mid-1970s. A vagueness about the time period persists, with frequent nagging little anachronisms, but it brings to mind another movie star couple – Liz Taylor and Richard Burton.
However, while there is plenty of streaking mascara, we see none of that couple’s famous fiery battles. Roland and Vanessa are going through a difficult phase in their 14-year marriage, when they arrive in this small French seaside town for a vacation, and they have come to this lovely, isolated spot far from their New York City home, to resolve their differences. one way or another.
Actually, it is sort of a working vacation for Roland, who is trying to write a novel after a long dry period and a sagging career. Roland is a heavy drinker and spends a lot of time in a cafe where he befriends Michel (Niels Arestrup), a bartender who is a widower still mourning his wife a year after her death. Vanessa spends most of her time in the room, crying and lounging around partly dressed, or staring out from the balcony at the quiet bay below, watching a lone fisherman come and go. Roland and Vanessa swing between avoiding each other and rages – well, Vanessa rages against Roland, who is mildly solicitous – when he is not avoiding her.
In the next room is a young recently-wed French couple, Lea (Melanie Laurent) and Francois (Melvin Poupaud). The two other marriages – Michel’s long happy one and Lea’s and Francois’ new one – influences how Roland feels about his own. Vanessa is harder to read – saying little but crying, raging, and seething with resentment by turns, usually while giving her fans a full view of her famous face and body.
There is a great deal of soulful gazing into the camera in this film. But the lingering shots give us little information and mostly contribute to the film’s languid pace. We get a few hints about possible reasons for the couple’s alienation but the film drags out the mystery to the point of irritation. At one point, Vanessa discovers a small hole in the wall between their room and the newlyweds’ one. The voyeurism makes things a little kinky for awhile, but the film soon returns to its plodding progression until the film finally give us some answers.
The locations and photography are lovely and the acting, particularly Brad Pitt, is actually pretty good, given how little the actors have to work with. It is the story and the film’s direction that are lacking in fire, which is laid at the feet of director/writer/star Angelina Jolie Pitt.
Many are labeling this latest romantic drama a “vanity project.” It is hard to disagree with that. This is the third narrative film Jolie Pitt has directed, and neither “In the Land of Blood and Honey” or “Unbroken” were knockouts. Jolie Pitt has the resources and money to make any film she wants, and get it in theaters. It is much less clear if she has the skill to make great films.
This is a smaller, more personal film, in which she stars along side her husband, which has prompted questions about how biographical it may be, since she wrote as well as directed it. Regardless, the emotional fire the story could have sparked is not there, and it remains a pretty film that is pretty dull too.
Still, one wants to see her to succeed if for no other reason than there are too few women directors. But best wishes cannot make a film good. Will there be a fourth Jolie Pitt-directed film? It is hard to say, but it is unlikely response to “By The Sea” will encourage that.
