USA TODAY International Edition
Jolie Pitt’s ‘ By the Sea’ has critics adrift
It’s all so beautiful.
By the Sea’s first frames focus on two of the most photogenic movie stars on the planet ( married in real life, to boot), careening along a seaside road in Malta. The world, not to mention the box office, should be their oyster. But upon viewing Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s European honeymoon project, edited into a 122- minute weepy drama, critics are confused, and distributor Universal Pictures doesn’t seem any clearer.
Is By the Sea ( which hits theaters in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto on Friday) a carefully paced European- style indie? ( Not quite; Universal produced it for $ 10 million.) Is it a bookend to the black comedy Mr. & Mrs.
Smith, which during its making the couple fell in love 10 years ago? No, thanks to By the Sea’s scant ( but treasured) tonguein- cheek moments. OK, is it a peek into their marriage? Jolie Pitt, as she bills herself in the movie, says no.
“This is a film, at the core, about grief, and that grief was from the loss of my mother,” she said at By the Sea’s AFI Fest premiere last week in Hollywood. “But at the end, I think this film is also about learning about how to move past it.”
Written, directed and produced by Jolie Pitt, By the Sea is a study on the rocky marriage of 1970s author Roland ( he has writer’s block) and his former dancer wife, Vanessa, who remains bereft and withdrawn, her slender frame drowning in fabric and false eyelashes.
It’s only when two attractive French newlyweds ( Melvil Poupaud and Melanie Laurent) check into the room next door — and Vanessa finds a peephole to watch them have sex — that flashes of vibrancy pierce through her anguish. Variety’s Justin Chang called By the Sea “an unabashed vanity project … meandering and overlong in ways that will test the patience of even die- hard Brangelina fans.” The Hollywood
Reporter found even the film’s final dramatic payoff ( why is Vanessa so sad?) underwhelming. “There’s no catharsis at the end from the journey taken, just relief that it’s over,” critic Todd McCarthy wrote.
A few facts behind the film assist in revealing its raison d’etre. Shortly before marrying Pitt last summer and setting off for Malta with their six children, Jolie had completed her biggest feature to date, Unbroken, also for Universal. ( It grossed a respectable $ 115 million domestically.)
The studio likely wants to remain in business with Jolie, says Jeff Bock, box office analyst for Exhibitor Relations. Not to mention, when powerhouses appear together on screen ( Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman or Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton) it can prove fruitful. ( Let’s not speak of what can happen otherwise ... Gigli.)
According to Universal, the film will hit10 theaters this weekend, a surprising move. “Most studio films, set for wide release, are released to a minimum of 2,000 theaters,” Bock says. By the
Sea does plan to expand to additional markets on Nov. 20, though the studio would not confirm which ones or how many.
Bock calls the cautious rollout “pretty telling. Two actors like this, some of the biggest names in Hollywood, to really have no buzz behind ( their film) is really surprising, no matter what ( kind of film) it is.”