Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Set in France during the mid-1970s, Vanessa, a former dancer, and her husband Roland, an American writer, travel the country together. They seem to be growing apart, but when they linger in one quiet, seaside town they begin to draw close to some of its more vibrant inhabitants, such as a local bar/café-keeper and a hotel owner.
By the Sea is a visually sumptuous but dramatically inert film. Jolie's direction wrings gorgeous imagery from the French Mediterranean coastline and period-accurate production design, earning strong marks for cinematography. Pitt and Jolie (Jolie-Pitt at the time) deliver committed performances in difficult, emotionally opaque roles, though the film's languid pacing and thin characterization limit what they can do. The plot is meandering and underwritten — marital malaise and voyeuristic obsession stretched well past their dramatic potential with little payoff. The film feels derivative of European art-cinema traditions (Antonioni, early Malle) without bringing a sufficiently distinctive voice of its own, and the ending offers little resolution or catharsis, leaving audiences with the same emotional void the characters inhabit, but not in an earned way.