By the Sea

In the 70's, writer Roland (Brad Pitt) and former dancer Vanessa (Angelina Jolie) are in a tired marriage. They hope to rekindle their relationship and his writing in a small seaside town in the south of France. She finds a peep hole and obsesses over their next door neighbor especially Léa (Mélanie Laurent).

Angelina Jolie continues to try to be a real filmmaker. She seems competent as a director. I don't see any outstanding style but her work is functional. The acting is tired although that's their characters. Her depression needs to be over-dramatized. When depression is depressed, it's depressing to watch. That's mostly in the writing and I don't think Jolie is a good writer. She may have fair concepts but her dialogue does not sing. The flow is stuck in mud. The plot could have gone somewhere compelling. She needs to collaborate with a better writer who could help her work. This has potential but Jolie lacks the skills to exploit.

"By The Sea" (2015 release; 122 min.) brings the story of married couple Roland (played by Brad Pitt) and Vanessa (played by Angeline Jolie). As the move opens, we see them driving in a gorgeous 1960s Citroen convertible somewhere in the south of France, while Jane Birkin's "Jane B" is blasting on the radio. Roland and Vanessa find an agreeable spot close by the sea and decide to stay there. Eventually another married couple (some years younger, though) ends up in the hotel room next to Vanessa and Roland, not aware that Vanessa found a peep hole, allowing them to look in the other room. To tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the third movie in the last 3 years directed by Angelina Jolie (she also wrote the script), but the first one where she directs herself (and Brad). It's been exactly 10 years since Angelina and Brad co-starred (ironically also in a struggling marriage, but of a very different kind!). If it sounds from my introductory lines that a lot is happening in the movie, think again. This is an ultra-slow moving film. You would think that this would allow us to get to know these characters, but alas, that is not the case either. We know virtually nothing as to why the marriage is in trouble, and can only speculate why Vanessa seems depressed, if not worse, and why Roland is experiencing writer's block. Despite all that, the movie does find some traction in the second half, just in the nick of time, frankly. The movie's photography is drop-dead gorgeous (filmed in Malta, that stood in as the south of France). The movie features a number of big French movie stars, including Melvil Poupaud and the beautiful Melanie Laurent (as the other married couple) and Niels Arestrup (as the café tender). There is a ton of great music featured in the movie, both in the musical score, as well as French songs from that era (think Serge Gainsbourg, Jane Birkin, Jacques Dutronc, Sheila, etc.).

"By The Sea" opened this weekend at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati, and since I don't expect this to play in theaters very long, I went to see it right away. The Saturday early evening screening where I saw this at was attended dismally (4 people, including myself). I can't say it surprised me as the vibe around this movie has not been great. I nevertheless was curious about it (due to a clever trailer, frankly). If you are interested in catching a slow-moving relationship drama that is way off-center, I encourage you this give this a try, be it in the theater (better hurry!), on VAD or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray.

Located in a remote resort in France (but shot on Gozo in Malta), this story is located in the 1970s, so no computers or smartphones and lots of smoking and drinking plus a veteran sport car.

The focus is almost exclusively on a married couple who clearly have a very strained relationship for a reason which is only explained - and then too briefly - at the very end. The pacing is languid, even soporific, and there is only one person to blame: Angelina Jolie who wrote, directed and stars as an unsympathetic character.

Her co-star as husband is her real-life partner at the time Brad Pitt. Sadly this film seems prophetic since Jolie and Pitt split up soon afterwards and both the movie and its afterward seem to echo "Eyes Wide Shut" with then husband and wife Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.

Greetings again from the darkness. As a devotee and lover of the cinematic art form, I tend to focus on the positive elements of films, and maintain a near reverent respect for filmmakers who engage in personal projects. Because of this, I typically avoid labels such as "bad" or "good" and instead focus on the experience. Unfortunately, this latest from writer/director Angelina Jolie (billed for the first time as Angelina Jolie Pitt) has delivered a prolonged experience of monotony and misery that can only be described as bad. Or awful. Or even beyond awful.

It's based in the mid-1970's and filmed on the island of Gozo in Malta. The setting is stunningly beautiful, and cinematographer Christian Berger captures the essence of this unique spot with naturalistic lighting and plenty of wide shots of the rocky beaches that provide the foundation for a classy and quaint inn run by Michel (Niels Arestrup, A Prophet). Roland (Brad Pitt) and Vanessa (Angelina Jolie) are the epitome of an unhappily married couple … though they are stylishly dressed while driving their 1967 Citroen convertible.

He is a writer who doesn't write and she is a former dancer who doesn't dance. While he is not writing, Roland sucks down gin, beer and anything else Michel will serve him. Vanessa mostly hangs out in the room popping pills and watching a fisherman in a row boat. When they are together, they rarely speak except to ensure we viewers understand just how miserable they are … with a lousy reason that isn't explained until late in the film. Mostly she bats her porn star fake eye lashes while he sports a porn star mustache.

A glimmer of hope emerges when a honeymooning couple takes the room next door. Lea (Melanie Laurent) and Francois (Melvil Poupaud) seem quite happy and enjoy spending time together in bed. We know this because Vanessa discovers a peephole where she can take in the sights. In what is probably the only interesting twist, Lea and Roland are soon sharing peeps … a step that somehow begins the process of rebuilding their relationship. Of course, that doesn't happen without many more scenes of misery prior to the quite predictable finish.

Angelina is clearly paying tribute to the 1950's and 1960's French art-house films, but having two unlikable lead characters who can't stand to be in the same room never allows the viewers to connect … though she seizes many opportunities to show off her exquisitely rebuilt breasts. The film is entirely too long – and feels even longer – as it squanders a real chance to explore the second stage of marriage. The beautiful scenery and Gainsbourg songs don't come close to making this a movie worth enduring.

Brooding, aimlessly wandering through city streets, laying in bed, smoking, and sulking would be much more enjoyable activities if we could all look as beautiful as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Pitt do some variation of the five for nearly two hours in their latest film By the Sea. Upon initially seeing the trailer, which featured little else other than the beautiful location of Mġarr ix-Xini, a bay on the island of Gozo, serving as the backdrop for Brad and Angelina as they slum around a beautiful place looking like they just came out of a makeup chair, I was about as skeptical as could be about the level of sustenance in this film. Because of this, it's surprising to note that this is a film that, in spite of itself, does a nice job at posing a commentary on relationships and marriage despite not using a great deal of dialog or events.

Set in 1970's France, the minimalist story revolves around Roland and Vanessa (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Pitt), a married couple of fourteen years who are experiencing a rough patch in their relationship. One can immediately tell the rough patch stems from their inability to talk about anything, with his vice being the local tavern where he'll go to write, but instead, drink the day away, and her lethargy and unwillingness to get out of bed every day being her way of coping. The two make a cozy hotel their home, as Roland writes and gets to know the bartender Michel (Niels Arestrup), who has just lost his wife, while Vanessa enjoys peering into the hotelroom adjacent to theirs via a small hole in their wall, closed off by a wad of paper. Vanessa spends her days sipping wine, squirming on her balcony, or watching the young couple of Léa and François (Mélanie Laurent and Melvil Poupaud) have sex through the hall.

Roland and Vanessa have a relationship predicated upon arguing, ignoring, and moderate amounts of spousal abuse before Roland discovers the hole in the wall and his wife's hobby. When he does, the two use the time to drink, eat, and enjoy the view of their young neighbors together. Their attraction to Léa and François isn't something that's too out of the blue; the young couple are in their late twenties, which many consider to be the best years of a person's life because they can inconsequentially try new things and embark on new experiences without having to make a variety of exceptions. With that, Léa and François also still appear to be in love, willing to talk and do pretty much anything together, be it spontaneously go out to dinner or have sex without any kind of reservation. This leads to the subtle assertion on Roland and Vanessa's behalf that perhaps they have overcomplicated their own marriage, or they even have fallen out of love with one another.

Through the pervasive bouts of staring, drinking, smoking, and wandering in By the Sea are some seriously tender moments of realizations, and this comes in Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Pitt's ability to convey emotion through their facial expressions and mannerisms instead of Jolie Pitt replicating such emotions in a way that would embellish their significance. Whether we see Roland act like a hopeless drunk and make a complete buffoon out of himself in front of Michel, his new friend, or we watch Vanessa fight and throw a tantrum when her husband innocently visits her in the shower, we get bold representations of mood through these scenes thanks to the understated power of the real-life couple's acting abilities.

The fundamental flaw with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Pitt acting in a film together, let alone the two producing it and Jolie Pitt writing and directing it, is that the film will be examined in two ways: a testament to the couple's real life relationship, which ultimately gives it the impression of a vanity project, or it will be seen as two high-profile tabloid figures that audiences have a hard time convincing themselves their characters on screen aren't the same ones who still, to this day, glitz tabloid covers in grocery stores. The hard part is By the Sea is so minimalist in its style, so slight in its narrative and character development, that those who aren't known to appreciate aesthetic and craft in a film, especially in the way the film adheres to the visual conventions (not so much technical or aesthetic) of French New Wave, aren't likely to tolerate this film's two hour runtime and liberal narrative. This is a film that boasts a reward that comes with contemplation hours after you've seen it.

By the Sea, though it hinges ever-so delicately on the realm of self-parody thanks to its excessive brooding, mopey character behavior, and the characters constantly looking attractive despite operating in a disheveled state of defeat, is also a sad film that mixes ideas of marital disconnect, kinkiness, voyeurism, and marital stability in long-term relationships in a fascinating way. Its examination of relationships - by juxtaposing a young, idealistic couple with an aging and distant one - paints a striking portrait of an ugly marriage against a backdrop of beauty, adding layers to a film that would look wonderful on a post-card. To conclude on a bizarre comparison, Jolie Pitt's intention of how to paint marriage reminds me of how director and photographer Larry Clark chose to paint the suburbs of America in the 1950's - as beautiful, precise landscapes that housed dysfunction. The same can be said for Jolie Pitt's examination of marriage.

Starring: Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie Pitt, Mélanie Laurent, Melvil Poupaud, and Niels Arestrup. Directed by: Angelina Jolie Pitt.