The Deep Dark Blue Sea

Terence Davies (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)Back to "The Duke's" today for the new Terence Davies adaptation of Terence Rattigan's play "The Deep Blue Sea".

There may be SPOILERS AHEAD.

I was expecting to like this one, given the writer and director and also everything I'd heard about it. The critics certainly seemed to like it and my favourite of that gang, the "Good Doctor" Kermode, seemed enraptured by the film and the presence of Davies. Slightly more worrying was the reception it got from the critic I love to angrily disagree with: Mr Bradshaw. An impression had formed, from these critics, and the charming Mr Davies' own words on the subject on Kermode and Mayo's review show, which could not be dispelled by reference to the disparity between the critics' view and that of the paying customers (according to Rotten Tomatoes).

In the end I did enjoy it and in fact it completely sucked me in to its claustrophobic re-construction of post-war England. If I have one criticism it is that it was too blooming dark and I mean that literally, although the darkness does also echo the dark, tragic, forboding tone of the piece. I think I remember that Davies joked, as I often do, that the world was in black and white then but actually there didn't seem to be that much contrast and I can only imagine that the designers cried themselves to sleep every night in frustration that their creation couldn't be seen. My imression was of great attention to detail but it was hard to tell. Of course this could all be a projection issue I suppose.

Image via Wikipedia

Terence Rattigan

Anyway, the atmosphere was very convincing albeit not likely to uplift your spirits. The writing is good of course and at times relishable, for example in a scene that Davies was asked to cut but fought to keep in: a tense meal where Hester and her mother-in-law are just barely keeping their anger and hatred in check.

The film betrays its stage roots often and I don't think Davies was concerned about that. The acting, which is conmvincing and enjoyable nevertheless also looks at times like stage acting but there are certain moments where the Rattigan text makes that seem inevitable. The "re-enactment of the Second World War" scene with its "Wizzo" RAF idioms seems very self-conscious and artificial now.

Overall I was immersed in the language, set design and acting to a very enjoyable degree and particularly liked Simon Russell Beale's William Collyer. I would just say though, that my memory of the 1950s, admittedly filtered through the eyes of a small boy, were that people were only too happy to turn their back on the blackout and switch the lights on. Far from the stygian gloom engendered by present day sodium lighting with the faint orange glow making everyone look like animated corpses, the streets had proper yellow-white lighting and in whichever part of the home people chose to live (usually the kitchen where I came from) there was bright cheerful light (and tea, lots of tea). Presumably Hester had put all her shillings in the gas meter and had nothing left for the electricity.