Review
A fascinating intellectual and profound exploration of the psyches of four uniquely damaged characters two boys who never quite left the womb growing up in a small and affluent community far removed from reality with one father figure MIA the other passive and disconnected and only their mothers for comfort and company and two women who never conquered their fears of aging or their struggles with selfesteem and sexual confidence and whose intimate love for each other and need to feel young and desired manifest themselves in dangerous liaisons with each other's sons.
The premise is disturbing and unrealistic but a major strength of the film is that the characters' actions feel believable and understandable but never condoned or really condemned. We are given such insight into their islandlike community their lifestyles their dynamics and their psyches that it's perfectly clear why they fall into these simultaneously symbiotic and parasitic relationships. There is a nuance and an apathy to the directing that encourage the audience to focus more on the "how" and "why" rather than the "what." The film is never sexy or erotic because there is so much loneliness pain and desperation in the sex scenes. The ocean metaphors strengthen the storytelling but never overwhelm it and there is one particularly profound scene when Watts and Wright's granddaughters are lifted out of the very water that pulled them under and destroyed them.
The film lags around the midpoint once the quartet has fallen into a rhythm and so there is no more conflict or tension but picks up again once their group dynamic and Watts' character's happiness are threatened. The ending is disconcerted and unexpected but on reflection given the film's themes and the characters' self destructiveness it couldn't have convincingly ended any other way.
Wright and Watts do careerbest work here (people who think Watts is often overwrought will like her here I think) both give understated but incredibly complex performances and create living breathing three dimensional people out of these initially unbelievable women. Their guilt neediness and agony are everpresent in their eyes even as the characters try to remain composed and rational. The boys aren't given as much to do but Xavier Samuel perfectly captures the confidence and fauxinvulnerability of adolescence. It's also the first time Watts has laughed on screen in what must be years now which is nice to see!
Overall in spite of some silly dialogue it's riveting labyrinthine and unique it's been a very long time since an Englishlanguage film explored female sexuality and psychology as intimately and impartially as this one does. It feels more at home with 90's French dramas like La belle noiseuse and La cérémonie than it does in 2013. I'm not entirely surprised it's received such a hateful and crude reaction online but it has a lot more to offer than a controversial setting and I hope audiences will be able to look past the premise and see it not as an "issue film" but as the perceptive and devastating character study that it really is.