Terence Rattigan's celebrated 1950's consideration of yearning across the class divide is given a classy treatment by fellow Brit Terence Davies (The House Of Mirth). Rachel Weisz is the well-healed wife of an aristocratic judge (Simon Russell Beale) who falls for a dashing post-war pilot (Tom Hiddleston). The consequences of following ones heart are laid bare as their budding relationship crumples under the weight of social expectation and failed romance. This is about as far from Hollywood as romantic drama can be: no rosy sunsets, no cheery sidekicks, no happy ending.

"Beware of passion, it always leads to something ugly." It's been said that Rattigan (the world's most highly paid screenwriter in his day) rewrote the play for public consumption, having first imagined it for male lovers. Whether that's true, it is true that his work is deeply personal and heavily coded, and few come as heavy, or as coded as The Deep Blue Sea. This is a world of buttoned-down, emotional restraint. For a woman to dare buck that trend and, worse, succumb to her romantic inclination - that way lies madness. Or natural instinct? It's a subject on which Rattigan has some clear ideas.

Shot in dreary browns and greys, deep shadow informs the deepest emotion and Davies is not in a hurry. Along with long, longing stares and Trevor Rabin's earnest score, it is an acquired taste and his rejection of modern styles will leave audiences more troubled than pleased. Yet The Deep Blue Sea is a beautiful production, a creature in direct contact with the period in which it was written. Thoughtful, poignant, painfully measured, it explores and reveals the price of sexual abandon while creating something of a refuge from the hubbub of the contemporary space in which the film is released. No doubt Rattigan would have approved heartily.

// COLIN FRASER
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