Apparently Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó intends his latest film, At the Sea, to be the middle part of a loose triptych that began with 2020’s Pieces of a Woman which earned star Vanessa Kirby an Oscar nomination, and the upcoming A Place to Be with Ellen Burstyn and Pamela Anderson. Each deals with personal crisis for women at early adulthood, midlife, and older age.
In the case of the misbegotten At the Sea, Amy Adams stars as Laura, a wife, mother and daughter who sees all of those parts of her life collide into self-destruction after a drunk-driving accident with her son Felix (Redding Munsell) in the car. Once a former ballerina and then the face of her father’s dance company, her drift into alcoholism is caused by family problems and desperately trying to live up to the shadow of her father’s success.
When we meet her she is in her exit interview at a rehab facility with the promise of never returning. Coming home to Cape Cod after six months away she finds her relationships even more distant than ever. Her husband Martin (Murray Bartlett) resents her absence and the mess she has made of their lives and finances. Her teen daughter Josie (Chloe East), who was forced to take on more of a protective role for little brother Felix in his mother’s absence, is full of anger towards her. Felix is detached from her. Neighbors whisper. Laura is a woman at the crossroads attempting to find herself again. The only problem is with all the things she tried to be to others she never really knew who she was in the first place, a recipe for downfall she now hopes somehow, however gingerly, to turn into rebirth.
Unfortunately, Mundruczó and his screenwriter and partner Kata Weber use an annoying device to convey the unsaid among these family members, particularly Laura and Josie, and that is with interpretive dance which just pops up instead of dialogue out of nowhere, thrusting the narrative of what is a straight but not very convincing drama into a rather gimmicky way of communication. I totally get the arty attempt to do something different, but it took me out of the story instantly every time their conversations turn into an invitation to dance.
Still, Adams is the perfect choice for Laura, an obvious piece of casting as we’ve gone down this path before with her, notably in the better, more original, and highly underrated Nightbitch as a new mother dealing surreally in her own crisis. Then there was the critically lamented film version of Hillbilly Elegy where she played JD Vance’s severely drug-addicted mother. She got a SAG nomination for that and I had kind words for her moving performance even though now, in retrospect, Vance’s bestselling story seems fake in terms of who he’s become.
Can’t blame Adams though. She is one of those actors, right from the first time I noticed her in Junebug (the first of her six Oscar nominations), as unflinchingly authentic. That may be why her rather moody performance here had so much to live up to and didn’t move the needle for me. One problem may be believing she was this top dancer at one time. Adams, in her own teens, aspired to be a ballerina; it was a dream never realized, though she herself was briefly in a dance company. A key scene here toward the end has her in an interpretive dance alone on the beach with Josie. It is meant to be a cleansing moment of coming together at last between mother and daughter, but it just feels so choreographed (Meg Stuart is the credited choreographer for the film), like Adams was trying too hard to hit the marks. That goes for the film too.
As for the supporting cast that includes unnecessary interludes for characters played by Dan Levy, Rainn Wilson, Jenny Slate and a scene dropped in with Brett Goldstein, there is not much to say except when you have these actors largely known for their comic triumphs, it is a little disconcerting to see them tossed into a dour drama like this one. Casting directors Jessica Kelly and Rebecca Dealy made some odd choices here. Did they think this was a comedy? These fine performers are completely wasted.
Bartlett plays the frustrated husband as well as he can, and East is game as Josie, even surviving one dopey scene of expressing anger for mom with a weirdly violent impromptu ballet.
This latest English-language production for Mundruczó is sadly a miss, especially disappointing since I have been a fan of not just Pieces of a Woman but especially his extraordinary Cannes prize-winning dog story White God. This time, even with a talent like Adams at the helm, he can’t seem to get around a very familiar kind of melodrama Hollywood did so much better in the ’50s.
Producers are Alexander Rodnyansky, Aaron Ryder, Andrew Swett, Stuart Manashil, Mundruczó, Alex Lebovici, and there are 31 others with executive producer credits.
Title: At the Sea
Festival: Berlin (Competition)
Director: Kornél Mundruczó
Screenplay: Kata Weber
Cast: Amy Adams, Murray Bartlett, Chloe East, Brett Goldstein, Dan Levy, Redding Munsell, Jenny Slate, Rainn Wilson
Sales agents: WME Independent (U.S.); MK2 Films (international)
Running time: 1 hr 55 mins