On The Sea (UK)
Jack’s eyes rarely settle on another person’s. They dart away, adding to the worn-down, hollow presence of a man whose lean body seems almost hungry. The actor playing him is absolutely brilliant, and the emptiness Jack carries becomes unmistakable the instant he sees Daniel.
Their attraction unfolds in a close-knit Welsh fishing community, amid gray rain and a landscape as beautiful as it is bleak. It is a place where reserved men live within rigid expectations of masculinity, and where an affair brings the threat of judgment, bigotry and being shunned. The film is at its strongest in those difficult conditions: every sexual encounter carries risk, even as Jack and Daniel approach each other with the delicacy of men courting in another era.
Middle-aged Jack has spent decades keeping a part of himself hidden and denied. Secretly gay, or bi, he has been with his wife Maggie since they were both 16. His life is rooted in town, where he co-owns a mussel farm with his rough-edged brother Dyfan; tension between them simmers from the outset. Dyfan’s three sons work on the farm, while Jack’s sullen teenage son Tom repeatedly skips out. Jack worries that Tom will fall in with the wrong crowd, although the family likes Tom’s girlfriend Lois.
An incident for which Tom is indirectly responsible leaves Bernie, an older fisherman who makes his living with a scallop dredger, facing the amputation of a leg. Jack takes it upon himself to care for him. Bernie has been working with a young man, Daniel, whose chance meeting with Jack sets their love story in motion. Both know of a cruising spot, and their mutual attraction is clear. Jack has another secret, too: his cancer has recently returned, but he wants to keep it quiet.
At first their sex is awkward, anxious and almost wild. In the stolen hours they spend in Daniel’s trailer, it becomes gentler and less guarded. When they take Bernie’s little fishing boat out to sea, the title takes on meaning: away from the community’s prejudice and scrutiny, their affair becomes passionate and glorious. Yet Jack cannot commit to Daniel, a drifter, while his own life remains anchored in the town.
Word eventually spreads, and Maggie asks Jack to move out. Even then, he cannot commit to Daniel. As Jack’s health deteriorates and Maggie understands that he probably has little time left, she brings him home to care for him. Tom suddenly feels it is time to grow up, and a touching moment reveals that Maggie has always known about Jack’s sexuality. She invites Daniel over so he and Jack can have some quiet time together, and they go out on the water one last time.
I did wish that some of the considerable time devoted to Jack’s connections with various people in the community had instead been spent on his romance with Daniel. Even so, the slow pace worked wonderfully for me. The cold atmosphere is an absorbing backdrop for a beautiful, tender romantic drama about a man awakening sexually in midlife and the way he, his family and those around him respond. It is emotional and sentimental without ever tipping into excess.
Some viewers may think of “God’s Own Country”; to me, both films are lovely in their own ways. This one earns its feeling without cheap shortcuts or judgment, allowing its characters’ choices and complicated lives to unfold naturally. Quiet, honest and deeply relatable. (8/10)