Ten years after her directorial debut, The Violators, novelist Helen Walsh returns to the director’s chair for her latest effort, queer romantic drama On The Sea. Primarily known for her work as a writer, one can’t help but wonder if Walsh can weave a story for the screen as well as she can for the page.
The film follows Jack (Barry Ward), a mussel farmer stuck in the humdrum contentment of his daily routine and small-town life—the sort of town where everybody knows everybody, leaving very little room for a personal life. Day after day, he dredges crates of mussels from freezing cold seawater until his hands turn blue, has the same arguments with his brother, Dyfan (Celyn Jones), about how to save the family business, and struggles to connect with his sullen teenage son, Tom (Henry Lawfull).
Despite Jack’s clear dissatisfaction with his life, he pushes on until his body can no longer take it. We see him struggling with the daily tasks of his job and his family life, and there is a side plot concerning Jack’s cancer coming back, a detail which he hides from his wife, Maggie (Liz White), and their son. When Daniel (Lorne MacFadyen), a mysterious stranger, comes to town, however, everything changes.
The relationship between Daniel and Jack starts as strictly professional, but there is a clear curiosity, from both men, under the surface. What’s interesting is the way in which Jack perceives Daniel and the younger residents of the town as a whole. Free from the restraints of small-town thinking, Jack’s son, his friends, and even Daniel all refuse to shape themselves after the outdated traditions and opinions of the town’s residents. Jack, on the other hand, has spent his whole life confined to a life that he never wanted.
With this in mind, the age gap between Jack and Daniel is incredibly important. When the two first succumb to their feelings for one another, physically, Jack’s inexperience shines through. Not only is he nervous about the town’s people finding out, but also because he has never been with a man before. Thus, the younger man must show him the way to liberate the repressed older man.
The two performances from Ward and MacFadyen are worthy of praise, but there is one major issue that brings the whole film down with it – their relationship is a double-edged sword. The repressed nature of Jack’s sexuality means that his relationship with Daniel is somewhat cold, leaving us, the audience, feeling somewhat detached from it. However, as the film comes to a close, it becomes clear that we must truly care for this relationship for the film to have an emotional payoff. It’s not that the film’s ending isn’t sad or impactful; it is just that it never quite reaches the heights it could.
It is in this sense that Walsh’s latest directorial output fails. It’s a hard balance to keep, for sure, but Walsh’s screenplay is a little too basic to tow that line, and her skill as a director is too underdeveloped to bring out the nuance in the film that the story so desperately needs.
On The Sea is a fine film, but not a great one. Whilst the setting allows for some eye-catching imagery, and the relationship is interesting enough, it isn’t doing anything special or overly original. Its placement in the pantheon of queer cinema is sure to be forgotten in years to come.
On The Sea screened at Edinburgh International Film Festival.
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