A historic love story in the cinematic tradition of "Tess," "Swept From the Sea" is an elegant, emotionally potent saga that's both intelligent and almost certain to send Kleenex stock soaring. Masterfully crafted and heartfelt, it's a real audience pleaser with excellent commercial prospects domestically and, especially, in foreign climes.
A historic love story in the cinematic tradition of “Tess,” “Swept From the Sea” is an elegant, emotionally potent saga that’s both intelligent and almost certain to send Kleenex stock soaring. Masterfully crafted and heartfelt, it’s a real audience pleaser with excellent commercial prospects domestically and, especially, in foreign climes.
Inspired by a Joseph Conrad short story set on England’s rugged Cornwall coast at the end of the 19th century, “Swept” centers on indentured servant Amy Foster (Rachel Weisz) and shipwrecked Russian emigre Yanko Goorall (Vincent Perez). Two outcasts in a tight-knit farming community, they are linked by both station and compassion.
Related Stories
VIP+‘Hacks’ Post-Emmys Boost Highlights Max’s HBO Problem
Lady Gaga Drops ‘Harlequin’ Album, With Songs Inspired by Her ‘Joker’ Character
Tim Willocks’ script is foremost a tale of passion. Still, the richly textured material deftly covers an enormous amount of dramatic ground. The underlying tension is the coming of the industrial age, whose outward mechanical signs have yet to intrude upon the story’s setting. Nonetheless, Yanko, the sole survivor of a sea mishap, is the harbinger of a shrinking universe: He’s waylaid on his journey to a new beginning in America.
Popular on Variety
Also significant to the story are its echoes of Thomas Hardy. The caste system is very much in place in the rural setting. Amy, conceived prior to the wedding of her parents, is a social blot who uses silence as a weapon of defense and is therefore perceived as a simpleton. Yanko, initially treated as a slave, would be an apt match, were he from the area. But local attitudes are averse to the prospect of marriage to a foreigner.
The saga unfolds in flashback as Dr. James Kennedy (Ian McKellen) treats Miss Swaffer (Kathy Bates), an invalid, for gangrene, and the two recount the missing pieces of Amy and Yanko’s lives. Kennedy is a voice of science and intelligence, while Miss Swaffer provides an enlightened compassion that’s uncharacteristic of the sheltered village. She wants to grasp why the otherwise reasonable medic bears so much animosity toward Amy.
On a vessel bound for America, Yanko is swept overboard during a storm and inadvertently escapes the tragedy of a shipwreck. When he wanders onto a farm sick and hungry, the locals recoil in horror except for Amy, who offers food and washes him.
The still-nameless intruder is sent to work on rich landowner Swaffer’s (Joss Ackland) estate. On a house-call/chess-game visit, Kennedy attempts to determine the stranger’s origins. When Yanko skillfully completes the two men’s board game, there can be no other conclusion than that he’s of Russian heritage. The doctor offers English tutorials in exchange for chess lessons, and Swaffer pays him wages.
Slowly, the Russian becomes Kennedy’s surrogate son, replacing the one who died with his wife in a typhoid epidemic. As his English improves, Yanko becomes more mobile, seeking out the “gracious” woman who demonstrated true kindness. While the doctor never demonstrates hostility to the union, there’s a tacit resentment by the man of Yanko’s growing emotional attachment to the young woman.
Though terrorized and physically beset, the two lovers persist. Swaffer’s generosity enables them to marry when he finds them a cottage and a plot of land. They have a son, but ultimately the severity of the elements cuts short Yanko’s life. Kennedy blames Amy for his demise, but Miss Swaffer reveals to him the young woman’s true courage and sacrifice on her husband’s final night.
Unabashedly romantic, “Swept From the Sea” is by no means simple-minded. There is a contemporary resonance to its depiction of a bygone era attempting to defy encroaching modernization, and Amy and her child, outsiders to the old ways, will find their niche.
Relative newcomer Weisz is the piece’s indomitable spirit, resolute in the face of crushing opposition. She embodies the role without artifice or guile. Similarly, Perez presents his character as a man of the senses, a force of nature with razor-sharp instincts and natural goodness. Support work is uniformly excellent, particularly Tom Bell and Zoe Wanamaker as Amy’s emotionally stifled parents and Bates and Ackland as the Swaffers, a family making the transition with grace. McKellen has the gem role of Kennedy, a compromised character whose reason blinds better judgment.
Director Beeban Kidron makes a quantum career leap with this challenging production. Never stumbling into the arid regions of “Masterpiece Theater,” she gives the film a vitality that’s timeless and fresh. Peerless production credits include top-notch work by cameraman Dick Pope and composer John Barry.
One senses that this was a labor of love, and that ardor and conviction translate into a film of rich emotional satisfaction.
Read More About:
Jump to CommentsSwept from the Sea
British
More from Variety
Alex Wolff Opens Up About Channeling Leonard Cohen, Going Aggro for Frat Drama ‘The Line’ and Touring With BFF Billie Eilish
Disney vs. DirecTV Is a Different Kind of Carriage Battle
Billie Eilish and Finneas Endorse Kamala Harris for President Because ‘We Can’t Let Extremists Control Our Lives, Our Freedoms and Our Future’
Grammy Nominations Predictions: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan and Taylor Swift Will Vie in Top Categories
What Lionsgate’s Partnership Deal With Runway Means
Most Popular
Inside the 'Joker: Folie à Deux' Debacle: Todd Phillips ‘Wanted Nothing to Do’ With DC on the $200 Million Misfire
‘Kaos’ Canceled After One Season at Netflix
‘Menendez Brothers’ Netflix Doc Reveals Erik’s Drawings of His Abuse and Lyle Saying ‘I Would Much Rather Lose the Murder Trial Than Talk About Our…
Saoirse Ronan Says Losing Luna Lovegood Role in ‘Harry Potter’ Has ‘Stayed With Me Over the Years’: ‘I Was Too Young’ and ‘Knew I Wasn't Going to Get…
Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried to Star in ‘The Housemaid’ Adaptation From Director Paul Feig, Lionsgate
‘Joker 2’ Axed Scene of Lady Gaga’s Lee Kissing a Woman at the Courthouse Because ‘It Had Dialogue in It’ and ‘Got in the Way’ of a Music…
Christopher Nolan’s Next Movie: Matt Damon in Talks to Star in Universal Film Set for Summer 2026
Kathy Bates Won an Oscar and Her Mom Told Her: ‘You Didn't Discover the Cure for Cancer,’ So ‘I Don't Know What All the Excitement Is About…
Kamala Harris Cracks Open a Miller High Life With Stephen Colbert on ‘The Late Show’
‘Skyfall’ Director Sam Mendes Says James Bond Studio Prefers Filmmakers ‘Who Are More Controllable’: ‘I Would Doubt’ I’d…
Must Read
- Film
COVER | Sebastian Stan Tells All: Becoming Donald Trump and Starring in 2024’s Most Controversial Movie
By Andrew Wallenstein 3 weeks
- TV
Menendez Family Slams Netflix’s ‘Monsters’ as ‘Grotesque’ and ‘Riddled With Mistruths’: ‘The Character Assassination of Erik and Lyke Is Repulsive…
- TV
‘Yellowstone’ Season 5 Part 2 to Air on CBS After Paramount Network Debut
- TV
50 Cent Sets Diddy Abuse Allegations Docuseries at Netflix: ‘It’s a Complex Narrative Spanning Decades’ (EXCLUSIVE)
- Shopping
‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Sets Digital and Blu-ray/DVD Release Dates
Sign Up for Variety Newsletters
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Variety Confidential
ncG1vNJzZmiukae2psDYZ5qopV9mhnqDjp%2BgpaVfp7K3tcSwqmirp5q9tXnFq6amZaSdsm6%2FxJpkamlhbIBzhZRraGg%3D