Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt lounge around for the camera in a beautiful hotel room overlooking the Mediterranean, sorting through their angst and drinking heavily.
This is a movie? Actually, yes, it is, although the red flags for a possible power-couple ego trip are certainly all over the place.
“By the Sea,” written and directed by Jolie (billed here as Angelina Jolie Pitt), is an intensely-wrought marital drama set in the mid-1970s. Although it takes some misguided turns in the final going, it’s a pretty cool movie until then.
We are introduced to the couple as they arrive at an isolated hotel on the French coast (actually filmed in Malta). Roland is a once-promising novelist struggling with writer’s block, Vanessa is a former dancer burdened by ennui.
At first glance, this looks like an advertisement — maybe for the sports car they drive, maybe for the designer sunglasses they wear, maybe for the wine they greedily consume. But the film’s beautiful surface contrasts with the unhappiness in the marriage.
These two have been together for 14 years, and the cracks are showing. Jolie and Pitt give convincing portrayals of lovers whose relationship is shadowed by unspoken resentments — the fact that they look like the movie stars they are doesn’t diminish their finely-tuned sense of disenchantment.
In the film’s most intriguing turn, the two become distracted by a peephole into the room next door, where a newlywed couple (Melanie Laurent and Melvil Poupaud) are enjoying conjugal bliss.
It’s a slightly perverse hobby. But in this case, the couple that peeps together finally sleeps together.
This all sounds like some kind of art movie. And it is, or at least it dearly wants to be — Jolie Pitt is imitating the style of a certain brand of 1960s-70s European film.
“By the Sea” will undoubtedly vanish quickly, as fans of European art films aren’t into seeing Brangelina flicks, and vice versa. And the film definitely has problems — having set up its marital crisis, Jolie thinks she has to supply an answer that will explain the couple’s unhappiness.
That’s an inevitable let-down. Failed effort though it may be, I liked watching this film. The thing is easy on the eyes, for starters, but I also admire the go-for-it level of foolish ambition here. Say what you will about Angelina Jolie, but she’s not playing it safe.
“By the Sea” 3 stars)
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt play an anxious couple whose marriage is cracking during a stay on the French coast. Jolie, who wrote and directed, is aiming at a certain kind of European arthouse vibe here, and she gets pretty close — while the film has some serious problems, it’s got a few interesting ideas.
Rating: R, for nudity, language
Showing: Alderwood Mall
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