--- title: "The Deep Blue Sea: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-deep-blue-sea/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/the-deep-blue-sea" critics_score: 75 critics_reviews: 20 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): what the critics said Critics' score 75 from 20 reviews: 17 positive, 2 mixed, 1 negative. 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. ## The AV Club — Scott Tobias Rating A. 22 March 2012. 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 the review](https://www.avclub.com/the-deep-blue-sea-1798172073) ## Evening Standard Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 10 April 2012. Festival review. 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 the review](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/the-deep-blue-sea-review-7427314.html) ## Total Film — Philip Kemp Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 23 November 2011. 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 the review](https://www.gamesradar.com/the-deep-blue-sea-review/) ## Empire — Damon Wise Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 17 November 2010. 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 the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/deep-blue-sea-2-review/) ## Little White Lies — Jason Wood Rating 5/4/4. 24 November 2011. 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 the review](https://lwlies.com/reviews/the-deep-blue-sea) ## Sight and Sound — Jonathan Romney Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 20 December 2011. 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 the review](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/6649) ## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 24 November 2011. 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 the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/nov/24/the-deep-blue-sea-review) ## The Independent Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 24 November 2011. 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 the review](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/the-deep-blue-sea-12a-6267450.html) ## The New Yorker — David Denby Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 19 March 2012. 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 the review](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/the-deep-blue-sea-2) ## Vulture — David Edelstein Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 23 March 2012. 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 the review](https://www.vulture.com/2012/03/movie-reviews-deep-blue-sea-the-raid.html) ## Slant Magazine — Bill Weber Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 19 March 2012. 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 the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-deep-blue-sea/) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 28 March 2012. 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 the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-deep-blue-sea-2012) ## Screen Daily Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 12 September 2011. Festival review. 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 the review](https://www.screendaily.com/the-deep-blue-sea/5031979.article) ## The New York Times — A.O. Scott Rating Critic's Pick. 22 March 2012. 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 the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/movies/the-deep-blue-sea-directed-by-terence-davies.html) ## Variety — Leslie Felperin Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 11 September 2011. Festival review. 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 the review](https://variety.com/2011/film/reviews/the-deep-blue-sea-1117945909/) ## Time Out — Dave Calhoun Rating 3/5. 18 October 2011. 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 the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-deep-blue-sea) ## The Hollywood Reporter — Todd McCarthy Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 11 September 2011. Festival review. 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 the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/deep-blue-sea-toronto-review-233923/) ## The Wrap Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 23 March 2012. 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 the review](https://www.thewrap.com/deep-blue-sea-review-passion-and-torment-cold-water-flat-36500/) ## Paste — Jay Antani Rating 8.0. 15 March 2012. 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 the review](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/the-deep-blue-sea) ## Eye for Film — Jennie Kermode Fi1m's normalised score 55/100 (inferred from the text). 16 November 2011. Festival review. 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 the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-deep-blue-sea-film-review-by-jennie-kermode) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/the-deep-blue-sea.md