Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

By the Sea Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman July 9, 2016

Writer/Director Angelina Jolie Pitt's (Unbroken) By the Sea paints a portrait of a couple (played by Jolie Pitt and her real-life husband Brad) in crisis, midlife and married for 14 years who, on their idyllic retreat for answers, find others at different stages of life and love around them. Next door is a young newlywed couple (Mélanie Laurent, Melvil Poupaud), fresh with sexual vigor and a passion for one another's company. A peephole serves as a lens into their world but more importantly a reflection on the struggling couple's past lives and the love they once shared. Below is a widower (Niels Arestrup) of a year whose wife passed in pain, his only regret that he could not take her place in death. In the middle, their struggles magnified, their passions dimmed, their future uncertain, their love at a crossroads, they must find a way to save their marriage or allow their rut to ruin their lives.

The couple.

By the Sea is a well designed film. Its style, both practical and technical, mesh very well. The film's modern roots don't interfere with its comfortable era look, tone, and feel. Jolie Pitt's direction is simplicity in motion. Her photography captures an essence of place, time, and character with uncanny detail that's as much a result of her unobtrusive, steady hand as it is her, and her husband's, performance on the other side. The couple absorb the characters and all that surrounds them, presenting a unified front of distance, he a little more willing to engage than she but the wounds obvious, the pains sincere, the questions lingering, and the prospects dim. Both sell the parts very well, falling into location, costume, dialect, and most importantly emotion with unflinching and constant ease. The film's ability to surround the viewer with beautiful scenery plays in stark contrast to the ugliness -- often more implied than realized, even as the tension hangs in the air with a palpable thickness -- and enhances the themes of personal struggle and doubt very well.

Indeed, that simplicity in execution versus the complexity in narrative is very well done. The film is slow to unfold but not slow in exploring the core, and explicitly realized, struggles the couple faces. Even as the movie plays out in something of a stalling or neutral gear in its first act, Brad and Angelina manage to explore deeply through simple exchanges, telling glances, and smart structural considerations for the film. He continues to straighten her sunglasses on the mantle, for instance, demonstrating that he still cares for her, even in little ways. Her greater distance is clear. His exchanges -- both sober and drunken -- with the barkeep are amongst the more crucial and well done in the movie; but it's the burgeoning relationship, at first reluctant, then questioning, and gradually evolving, with the young couple next door that has the greatest impact on the direction their marriage will take. It can be a little too soap opera overdone, but that literal and metaphorical reflection of their own lives is well executed and explored to satisfaction.

Occasionally, By the Sea cannot escape the grasp of its passion project roots and the lack of dramatic creativity. Though character complexity abounds, character novelty does not. The film explores themes of significance, but seems to do so not so much because it has something to say on the matter, but because it allows the cast and crew to demonstrate a grasp of an era and the complexities of a long and increasingly difficult marriage. The movie's superficialities -- which extend to its core themes -- satisfy very broadly, but never does it feel as if it means much of anything that will linger long after film's conclusion.

By the Sea Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

By the Sea's 1080p transfer comes sourced from a clean and accurate digital shoot. The picture is regularly clear and strongly detailed. Rocky seaside French countryside, handsome upholstery and fabrics in the hotel room, cruder wood grains in the bar, resplendent fabric textures, and naturally complex faces are all the beneficiaries of Universal's immaculate clarity and the source's impressive period production design. Colors are attractive, too, dominated by beautiful bright blue sea water. Elegant beiges and browns dominate much of the rest of the film's basic attire and location set pieces. Black levels are healthy, as are flesh tones. Light aliasing appears on a curtain around the 22-minute mark. Otherwise, the image is clean and absent any significant artifacts.

By the Sea Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

By the Sea features a rather gentle and simple DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Music, generally, plays with healthy clarity but not much vigor or surround detail. Things open up occasionally, but by-and-large there's a very reserved feel to music and, indeed, much of the track. Light ambient effects creep in from time-to-time. The movie is largely dialogue intensive. The spoken word does enjoy excellent clarity and lifelike definition from its firm front-center placement.

By the Sea Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

By the Sea contains several deleted scenes and two featurettes. A voucher for a UV/iTunes digital copy is included with purchase.

• Deleted Scenes (1080p, 11:46 total runtime): Roland Gets in a Fight, Stop It, Roland Returns Drunk, Dinner with Lea and Francois, A Very Special Bottle, What Are They Doing?, and Maybe You Shouldn't Write.
• Gena Rowlands: An Inspiration (1080p, 4:55): Angelina Jolie Pitt discusses the way Gena Rowlands' career has inspired her and why she wanted to share this film with Gena. The piece includes conversations about the art of acting between Angelina Jolie Pitt and Brad Pitt and Gena and her husband.
• Making By The Sea (1080p, 9:23): Actor/Producer Brad Pitt, Actress/Writer/Director/Producer Angelina Jolie Pitt, Actor Melvil Poupaud, First Assistant Director Joseph Reidy, Director of Photography Christian Berger, and Actor Niels Arestrup discuss character motivations, writing the script, underlying themes in the film, filming techniques used in various scenes, using 70's era styles within the film, and filming with friends and family on the set.

By the Sea Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

By the Sea is a competently made and oftentimes engaging picture that thrives on its nuanced performances and gorgeous setting, but it never feels as if it's saying anything new. The movie is a rare breed that oozes authenticity and depth but never a sense of dramatic importance or novelty. It's worth a look, and Universal's Blu-ray does the film justice, but it feels as if it could have been more.