--- title: "The Deep Blue Sea" year: 2011 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-deep-blue-sea" fi1m_score: 82 critics_score: 75 critics_reviews: 20 published: "2026-09-16T13:29:31.476232+00:00" updated: "2026-09-16T13:29:31.802289+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Deep Blue Sea (2011) Directed by Terence Davies · 1h 38m · MPA R · Drama, Romance **Fi1m score: 82** · Critics 75 from 20 reviews *In a sentence:* A pub singalong is a poor substitute for someone loving you back > Rachel Weisz makes this tightly controlled romance hurt, with strong support from Tom Hiddleston and Simon Russell Beale. The music occasionally presses too hard, but the sympathy for a woman wanting more from life is worth the discomfort. ## Synopsis In post-war London, Hester Collyer (Rachel Weisz) wants a life with her lover, Freddie Page (Tom Hiddleston), but his feelings do not match hers. Her husband, Sir William Collyer (Simon Russell Beale), offers kindness without the passion she seeks. The film moves between her present distress and memories of the relationships that bring her here. In shadowed rooms and among pub singalongs, Hester faces the consequences of adultery in a society with little room for her desires. Freddie’s volatility and William’s gentleness leave her struggling to find a love she can live with. ## Review Terence Davies makes *The Deep Blue Sea* a moving romance, though his care over every image sometimes makes distress look too carefully arranged. His screenplay lets memories interrupt Hester Collyer’s present, gradually showing why neither her husband nor her lover can give her the life she wants. The patience matters, because a brisker account of this triangle could leave her looking merely indecisive. We have time to understand the attraction, the disappointment and the difficulty of knowing what to do when understanding changes nothing. Rachel Weisz gives Hester an intelligence that makes her helplessness in love especially painful: she can understand her predicament without being able to bear it. There is pride in the performance, too, which prevents the character becoming someone we are simply invited to pity. Tom Hiddleston makes Freddie Page’s volatility credible, although the film gives us less access to his feelings than to hers. As Sir William Collyer, Simon Russell Beale brings enough kindness to the husband that Hester’s dissatisfaction cannot be explained away by making him a brute. All three performances allow affection and hurt to exist together. Florian Hoffmeister photographs post-war London through brown haze and deep interior shadows, making the lack of light feel wearing rather than romantic. James Merifield’s production design sets the rooms within a city still bearing bomb damage; the unhappiness belongs somewhere recognisable. The surroundings help explain why a promise of pleasure might carry such weight for Hester. Occasionally, though, the gloom becomes so consistent that separate scenes feel too alike, and the period detail begins to keep the people at a distance. David Charap’s editing keeps the shifts between past and present fluid enough that the memories feel prompted by Hester’s distress. We are asked to follow her attention, and the cutting generally makes that easy without requiring a spoken explanation. Samuel Barber’s music carries the opening passage with a sweep that announces how seriously the film takes her longing. The violin can be less helpful when it insists on feelings already clear in the acting. At those points, a quieter soundtrack would give the performances more room. We were moved by the pub singalongs, because hearing people sing together makes Hester’s isolation feel more painful. The songs make it easy to understand why someone would want to stay among these people for another drink. They also give the film a welcome everyday sound after the force of the orchestral music. It is a relief to hear human voices occupying these sombre surroundings, and the scenes let us feel the appeal of company without pretending that company will solve her troubles. As a romantic melodrama, the film asks us to accept that wanting someone can become the central fact of a life. That narrow focus will frustrate anyone looking for more of the world outside the relationship, and the deliberate pace sometimes makes 98 minutes feel longer. Yet the actors keep finding ordinary human awkwardness inside the formal exchanges, and we never lost interest in Hester. See it for the way Rachel Weisz allows her to remain difficult, clear-sighted and deserving of tenderness at once. *Fi1m score 82, published 16 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics respond warmly to Terence Davies’s adaptation of Rattigan, praising its account of frustrated desire and post-war loneliness. Rachel Weisz’s Hester draws the most consistent admiration, with several reviews also commending Hiddleston and Russell Beale. Praise clusters around the atmospheric interiors, period songs and shifts between past and present, which give the play a more fluid screen form. For many, Davies’s careful staging makes the characters’ private unhappiness deeply affecting. The main disagreement is over how much emotion survives that careful staging. Most find the film moving, but a small minority see its restraint and period manners as distancing. Time Out admires the performances but finds the treatment precious, while Eye for Film argues that the adaptation’s artificiality weakens its impact despite Weisz. The Hollywood Reporter offers the sharpest dissent, finding the film suffocating and the central performances short of passion; elsewhere, reservations concern theatricality or music that pushes too hard. ### Reviews we read (20) - **The AV Club**, Scott Tobias (A): Davies delivers a crushing romantic tragedy about a woman whose unreciprocated passion forces her to confront the wreckage of her life; the film excels in its elegant layering of past and present and in a standout wartime subway scene. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-deep-blue-sea-1798172073) - **Evening Standard** (85/100, inferred): Davies is a perfect match for Rattigan, filleting the play while preserving its emotional core and delivering a moving, period-faithful adaptation with a standout performance from Weisz. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/the-deep-blue-sea-review-7427314.html) - **Total Film**, Philip Kemp (85/100, inferred): Davies plunges into classic territory with a heart-breaking performance from Weisz as Hester, trapped between passion and emotional aridity in post-war Britain, echoing Brief Encounter. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/the-deep-blue-sea-review/) - **Empire**, Damon Wise (80/100, inferred): This is one of Davies' stronger films, a mesmeric and haunting study of isolation and post-war dissatisfaction that is beautifully made despite some critical brickbats. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/deep-blue-sea-2-review/) - **Little White Lies**, Jason Wood (5/4/4): Davies delivers a handsomely designed and luminously shot wartime tragi-romance that is classic Davies territory and filmmaking of the highest order. With an insightful emphasis on women’s position in 1950s patriarchal society and resonant use of music, it offers an almost unbearably moving story about the quest for fulfilment. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/the-deep-blue-sea) - **Sight and Sound**, Jonathan Romney (80/100, inferred): Davies adapts Rattigan’s play into a cinematic opera that gives Hester’s intense emotions unembarrassed resonance in the tradition of 1940s and 1950s women’s pictures. The film’s masterstroke is an eight-minute Barber-scored prelude with a crane shot, and the three leads deliver superb performances despite some casting questions. [Read](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/6649) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (80/100, inferred): The critic praises Terence Davies's impressionistic adaptation of the Rattigan play as a melancholy yet sweet and delicate film. Weisz delivers a calm, intelligent performance as Hester, with strong support from Hiddleston and Russell Beale; the film captures themes of romantic inadequacy and postwar damage through vivid pub singalongs and atmospheric interiors. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/nov/24/the-deep-blue-sea-review) - **The Independent** (80/100, inferred): Davies adapts Rattigan's play with his signature elegant style and tenderness, capturing the characters' erotic longing, defiance and suicidal shame in a highly stylised yet primal way. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/the-deep-blue-sea-12a-6267450.html) - **The New Yorker**, David Denby (80/100, inferred): The film is a sombre, powerful adaptation about convention and sexual cowardice, with Weisz and Hiddleston excelling in their roles. It is stern, noble, heartbreaking, and very much in the Rattigan spirit. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/the-deep-blue-sea-2) - **Vulture**, David Edelstein (80/100, inferred): Davies adapts the material with his signature meditative style, blending particular moments with iconic resonance and heightening the emotional impact of quiet scenes like Hester cleaning shoes. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2012/03/movie-reviews-deep-blue-sea-the-raid.html) - **Slant Magazine**, Bill Weber (75/100, inferred): Davies surprises with a stranger, more unsettled take on the Rattigan play, centering Weisz’s performance and using chiaroscuro visuals, period music, and memory flashes to explore Hester’s pursuit of erotic autonomy. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-deep-blue-sea/) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (70/100, inferred): Davies creates a vivid postwar London of brown fog and bombed-out buildings, evoking the era through songs and memories. The film centers on Hester's emotional turmoil and pity for the men in her life and the exhausted city itself. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-deep-blue-sea-2012) - **Screen Daily** (70/100, inferred): Davies deftly adapts Rattigan’s play into an elegantly staged, sublimely moody tale of painful love set against post-war London, with a moving lead performance by Weisz. The drama and passion remain somewhat at arm’s length, so the film is not ultimately moving despite its intensity. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/the-deep-blue-sea/5031979.article) - **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott (Critic's Pick): Davies delivers a feverish yet meticulous adaptation of Rattigan's tale of adultery and romantic despair. It explores a woman's attempt to live by her heart's dictates amid repressive postwar British society, with strong sympathy for the characters. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/movies/the-deep-blue-sea-directed-by-terence-davies.html) - **Variety**, Leslie Felperin (70/100, inferred): Davies brings luminous performances, especially from Weisz, to this classy adaptation that opens up the play's structure with flashbacks and period details. Its only major issue is being perhaps too true to its period sensibility and theatrical origins for broad contemporary appeal. [Read](https://variety.com/2011/film/reviews/the-deep-blue-sea-1117945909/) - **Time Out**, Dave Calhoun (3/5): Davies’s first drama in over a decade is a sad, deeply evocative period piece about a woman caught between a kind husband and a volatile lover, with strong performances from the leads. It feels studied and precious, however, and fails to grip the heart like Davies’s very best films. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-deep-blue-sea) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Todd McCarthy (40/100, inferred): Davies refashions the Rattigan play into a memory piece evoking postwar Britain but the result feels bloodless and suffocating, with the stars failing to deliver the necessary passion or conviction. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/deep-blue-sea-toronto-review-233923/) - **The Wrap** (80/100, inferred): The film is a languorous yet powerful examination of repressed passion and unrequited love in postwar Britain, with a resolution that avoids melodrama. Weisz delivers one of the year's best performances as the conflicted Hester, blending sex appeal, melancholy and vulnerability. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/deep-blue-sea-review-passion-and-torment-cold-water-flat-36500/) - **Paste**, Jay Antani (8.0): The critic finds the film an emotionally absorbing experience thanks to Davies' singular vision, intimate direction, and masterful use of sound and memory. Weisz delivers an exquisite performance as the lead, supported by strong work from Beale and Hiddleston, though an obtrusive violin concerto occasionally tips the film into melodrama. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/the-deep-blue-sea) - **Eye for Film**, Jennie Kermode (55/100, inferred): The critic finds the film an intelligent but flawed adaptation that works better on stage, with an awkward, artificial approach that diminishes its impact. She singles out Rachel Weisz's powerful, raw performance as Hester for particular praise. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-deep-blue-sea-film-review-by-jennie-kermode) ## Details - **Director:** Terence Davies - **Director:** Terence Davies - **Screenplay:** Terence Davies - **Cinematography:** Florian Hoffmeister - **Editor:** David Charap - **Music:** Samuel Barber - **Production design:** James Merifield - **Costume design:** Ruth Myers - **Producer:** Sean O'Connor, Kate Ogborn - **Cast:** Rachel Weisz as Hester Collyer; Tom Hiddleston as Freddie Page; Simon Russell Beale as Sir William Collyer; Harry Hadden-Paton as Jackie Jackson; Jolyon Coy as Philip Welch; Karl Johnson as Mr. Miller; Ann Mitchell as Mrs. Elton; Nicholas Amer as Mr. Elton - **Runtime:** 1h 38m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 23 March 2012 - **Genres:** Drama, Romance - **Box office:** $1 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIQR_99II3k ## Where to watch in the US - Zee5: streaming - Amazon Prime Video: streaming - Tubi: free, hd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Amazon Prime Video: rent $2.99, sd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $5.00, hd - Apple TV: buy $12.99, sd *Checked 2026-09-16.* Also available in: AU, CA, DE, FR, GB, IE, IT, KR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Brief Encounter* (1945), Fi1m 90: Another woman discovers how little good manners can do for desire. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/brief-encounter.md) - *Letter from an Unknown Woman* (1948), Fi1m 86: The pain of unequal devotion, given more sweep and less restraint. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/letter-from-an-unknown-woman.md) - *Ali: Fear Eats the Soul* (1974): A tentative romance tests how much cruelty ordinary neighbours can manage. - *In the Mood for Love* (2000), Fi1m 91: Longing measured through rooms, clothes and the difficulty of speaking plainly. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/in-the-mood-for-love.md) - *The Lunchbox* (2013): Letters let two lonely people say what daily life keeps quiet. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. 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