The Sea

"If slow-moving, arty-farty films reflecting on the human condition have you hurling obscenities at the screen, look away now because The Sea is all that and more. Max (a masterfully subtle portrayal by Ciarán Hinds), is an art historian who, following the death of his wife (a superb and deeply moving Sinéad Cusack), returns to the Irish coastal resort where he spent his childhood. Adapted from his novel by John Banville, the spare screenplay is masterfully served by director Stephen Brown, who quietly shapes a flashback-filled tale of a man haunted by a tragic past."

"A good, middlebrow adaptation..."

"It’s impossible to escape the sense that Banville’s work is best experienced on paper."

"A first-class cast make this an absorbing watch."

"The individual vignettes like the individual characters are left floating in the nothingness of a total storytelling void."

"This story of a man who plunges into childhood memories in the aftermath of his wife’s death remains admirable but wingless."