Weisz's performance raises the tension even in its most subdued moments, though, to ensure an artful character study of someone unwilling to compromise or apologize for staying true to themselves.

| Mar 11, 2025

[A] deeply affecting adaptation of the acclaimed Terence Rattigan play...

| Oct 23, 2023

...it has a stuffy air that dampens its thematic energy, which might help explain its lack of appreciation by American audiences

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 10, 2023

It’s not a bold or extravagant picture but it’s a good one mainly due to two incredible performances by its leads.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 20, 2022

[Director Terence Davies] seems to have invested every frame of the film with his exhilaration of making movies once again as well as a bittersweet quality of regret for the films he never made. His direction is loving, intimate, and exquisite.

| Jun 25, 2022

The Deep Blue Sea is a complex and compelling tale which draws the viewer into the emotional maelstrom of Hester's doomed dalliance.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 1, 2021

The perfect example of a stereotypical British film. It is serious, sad, slow, and filled with great acting.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 3, 2020

A haunting and intelligently drawn love story that lingers in the memory like a wisp of smoke caught in a sunbeam.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 6, 2019

With muted colours and dreamlike compositions, it's very much a mood piece, as if the story is being filtered through the smoky prism of the director's half-remembered childhood. A film for grown-ups, and highly recommended.

| Jul 29, 2019

Davies has also fashioned one of the great films about building a profound macro-drama out of a single event or day.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 1, 2019

This elegant, beautiful, sad film explores an old story in an emotionally violently new way.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 4, 2019

Unfortunately, once everyone's role is explained the film has nowhere to go.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 5, 2018

The Deep Blue Sea may be devoid of the stunning sound/image combinations that powered early Davies films such as Distant Voices and The Long Day Closes, but it's still framed and lit with tremendous care.

| Aug 29, 2018

It's incredibly well shot, with lingering long shots allowing the cast (who are well known for their theatre as well as film work) to demonstrate how talented they are.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 29, 2018

The film is intense and not just because it stars Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston, who probably have the most potent eyes in the business, though they are a large part of it.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 27, 2017

Davies' films, in their own way, are indicative of the social fissures of our moment.

| Nov 27, 2017

This is a fine film, a throw-back to the wonderful American films of the 40s and very much worth a visit to the cinema (as these Brits would have said).

| Sep 18, 2017

Now a new film of the play appears, adapted and directed by Terence Davies with Rachel Weisz in that stellar [Hester Collyer] role and with Rattigan's work in a freshening treatment.

| Jun 18, 2013

The movie is an exquisite period piece, slow and dank, and unduly persuaded that it's rendering a classic.

| Jun 17, 2013

Weisz makes Hester's dilemma interesting for a while, but even an actress as fine as she can't begin to mold the character into someone worth caring about.

| Original Score: C+ | May 25, 2013