Omeleto | MEET ME BY THE SEA | Omeleto @Omeleto | Uploaded August 2024 | Updated October 2024, 18 hours ago.
A couple confronts their differences.
MEET ME BY THE SEA is used with permission from The Madley Brothers. Learn more at instagram.com/themadleybrothers.
Anna is a writer living in a remote village in a beautiful but desolate area with her partner Oliver. Though she and Oliver have friends, Anna is frustrated and trapped. She misses her old life in the city, feels stifled creatively and has become resentful of Oliver, for whom she moved.
They throw a party together at their flat, where the couple's tensions come to a head. But just as their emotions boil over, an unexpected event reframes their discontent with one another.
Directed and written by The Madley Brothers, this lyrical, penetrating short romantic drama captures a precarious couple on the precipice of falling apart. Through unvarnished yet ravishing imagery and naturalistic, almost documentary-like dialogue and performances, we see both the beautiful but isolating natural setting that contours the outlines of Anna's life, as well as her restlessness and dissatisfaction. Isolated, frustrated with her mate and creatively stymied, she believes she and her partner have nothing in common anymore and feels trapped in a life that once held so much promise.
The film's tenor is low-key and natural, allowing much breathing room for viewers to take in the sights and textures of the gorgeous setting, as well as the nuances and seething emotions of its main character. Small yet pointed moments add up to a picture of domestic discontent, and the arc of the narrative charts how Anna's resentment reaches a boiling point, especially during a social event at her home that only underscores how she chafes in her surroundings.
As Anna, actress Charlotte Hope -- whom viewers may recognize from such shows as GAME OF THRONES and THE SPANISH PRINCESS -- portrays an intelligent, vibrant woman whose energy has turned in on itself in an almost self-destructive way, and she captures how Anna is holding in her emotions. As the party wears on, she is an awkward, sometimes abrasive presence, and we get the sense she is barrelling towards an outburst.
But then an event happens that changes everything, something that subtly shifts the genre of the film. It also recontextualizes the interpersonal drama, broadening its context and making its urgency more acute. It is the type of happening that makes Anna's psychological strife seem like child's play, but also forces her to realize what matters in the time they have left for normalcy. It pushes Anna and Oliver into what we sense is their first honest, difficult conversation in a long time, one that epitomizes the difficulties of commitment and long-term relationships. But, within the frame of the world-changing event, MEET ME BY THE SEA also underscores just why we embark on this kind of difficult, slogging and yet deeply meaningful love, making for a tender, poignant ending and posing thoughtful questions of what matters.
A couple confronts their differences.
MEET ME BY THE SEA is used with permission from The Madley Brothers. Learn more at instagram.com/themadleybrothers.
Anna is a writer living in a remote village in a beautiful but desolate area with her partner Oliver. Though she and Oliver have friends, Anna is frustrated and trapped. She misses her old life in the city, feels stifled creatively and has become resentful of Oliver, for whom she moved.
They throw a party together at their flat, where the couple's tensions come to a head. But just as their emotions boil over, an unexpected event reframes their discontent with one another.
Directed and written by The Madley Brothers, this lyrical, penetrating short romantic drama captures a precarious couple on the precipice of falling apart. Through unvarnished yet ravishing imagery and naturalistic, almost documentary-like dialogue and performances, we see both the beautiful but isolating natural setting that contours the outlines of Anna's life, as well as her restlessness and dissatisfaction. Isolated, frustrated with her mate and creatively stymied, she believes she and her partner have nothing in common anymore and feels trapped in a life that once held so much promise.
The film's tenor is low-key and natural, allowing much breathing room for viewers to take in the sights and textures of the gorgeous setting, as well as the nuances and seething emotions of its main character. Small yet pointed moments add up to a picture of domestic discontent, and the arc of the narrative charts how Anna's resentment reaches a boiling point, especially during a social event at her home that only underscores how she chafes in her surroundings.
As Anna, actress Charlotte Hope -- whom viewers may recognize from such shows as GAME OF THRONES and THE SPANISH PRINCESS -- portrays an intelligent, vibrant woman whose energy has turned in on itself in an almost self-destructive way, and she captures how Anna is holding in her emotions. As the party wears on, she is an awkward, sometimes abrasive presence, and we get the sense she is barrelling towards an outburst.
But then an event happens that changes everything, something that subtly shifts the genre of the film. It also recontextualizes the interpersonal drama, broadening its context and making its urgency more acute. It is the type of happening that makes Anna's psychological strife seem like child's play, but also forces her to realize what matters in the time they have left for normalcy. It pushes Anna and Oliver into what we sense is their first honest, difficult conversation in a long time, one that epitomizes the difficulties of commitment and long-term relationships. But, within the frame of the world-changing event, MEET ME BY THE SEA also underscores just why we embark on this kind of difficult, slogging and yet deeply meaningful love, making for a tender, poignant ending and posing thoughtful questions of what matters.
