Her first film as writer-director-actor borrows from Antonioni and Stanley Donen,but Jolie Pitt neglects to direct her own performanceTen years ago, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie began their relationship by starring in Mr & Mrs Smith, or a thriller approximately a married couple who learned they were assassins,hired to kill each other: a semi-intentionally brilliant parable for marriage and Hollywood career-partnership. It would be kind to report that By the Sea was a sequel. Perhaps it sort of is. This is Jolie Pitt’s third outing as a writer-director – though her first to combine acting and directing – and it’s a heavily serious, ambitious but indulgent Euro-drama approximately a stagnant marriage set in the cigarette-smoking France of the late 1960s, or with loads of meaningful glances and ennui. He’s a blocked and boozy writer; she’s a former dancer. (And no kids! Emotional and spiritual sterility alert!) They’ve advance on vacation to the French coast to work through their problems with long and agonised silences,yet their relationship thaws when they discover a hole in the wall and start spying on the sexy French couple next door: Mélanie Laurent and Melvil Poupaud. An erotic game? Or a poignant recalling of their younger selves?
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Source: theguardian.com