The Deep Blue Sea (2011)

Rachel Weisz is luminous in Terence Davies’ study of forbidden love, suppressed desire and the fear of loneliness.

In 1950s London, the young, beautiful Hester Collyer (Rachel Weisz) leads a privileged, self-contained life as the wife of a high court judge. When she becomes besotted with Freddie (Tom Hiddleston), a laddish former RAF pilot she meets in a pub, Hester risks much more than her social standing to be with him.

Director Terence Davies, the accomplished director of Distant Voices, Still Lives, The House of Mirth and Of Time and the City, impresses his unmistakable stylistic stamp on this fine literary adaptation of Terence Rattigan’s play from 1952.

The Deep Blue Sea plays as an encore on Cinema 3 after screening in ACMI’s Matinees program in 2012.