[yasr_overall_rating]
Hoping to reclaim who she was before marriage and children, an empty nester retreats to Cape Cod where she embarks upon a quest to set herself free.
Based on Joan Anderson’s memoir, “Year By the Sea” is a journey of self-discovery and friendship. Joan (Karen Allen) has been a dutiful mother, raising two boys, supporting her husband, Robin (Michael Cristofer), and clipping coupons for 30 years. At her son’s wedding, she is taken aback by the discovery that Robin has put their house on their market because his job has been relocated from New York to Kansas. Feeling lost and adrift, Joan decides to rent a cottage in Cape Cod and spend some time on her own again. Robin “comes from a generation of men who believe their wives should be wives” and although he lets her go, to him it is an affront; Joan wants adventure and he wants things to continue as they were.
The story is sweet and relatable…but the plot is as much adrift as Joan is, and overloaded with sentiment as well. Additionally, every other scene is erratically charged with whimsy or drama…a fanciful, spirited woman by the same name who dances in fabrics among the ocean waves or a battered fisherman’s wife who has excellent drawing skills and needs a way out. From the dialogue to the panning of the camera, the film is clumsy and untethered, beautiful and sincere, but as irritating and awkward as a petulant 13-year-old.
Robin comes to visit her over Christmas and they feel more apart than ever. They share an attempt at celebrating together in the midst of her wild adventure of rowing boats, remembering nostalgic songs among party flirtations, chopping wood, and exchanging gifts. But in the end, she wakes to find that he has rowed himself to the mainland, leaving her stranded once again on her island of loneliness. As if the sentiment can even be more sentimental, the film turns again, this time toward the power of female friendship and independence.
The film is thoughtful, but a little too thought-filled with deep turning points at every corner and too many meaningful insights to really understand what the focus of the story really is…other than one woman’s year by the sea and her search for meaning. I hope the book is indeed better than the film, in this case.
Opens at the Angelika Film Centers in Dallas & Plano Friday, September 29th
