By the Sea

Name: By the Sea
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: November 13, 2015
Duration: 122 min
Rating: 44
Cast: Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent, Melvil Poupaud, Niels Arestrup

2015

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 65 Ratings

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5.6

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5.6	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 65 Ratings

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By The Sea

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Movie Details & Credits

Universal Pictures | Release Date: November 13, 2015 | R

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent, Melvil Poupaud, Niels Arestrup

Summary: Roland (Brad Pitt), an American writer, and his wife, Vanessa (Angelina Jolie), arrive in a tranquil and picturesque seaside resort in 1970s France, their marriage in apparent crisis. As they spend time with fellow travelers, including young newlyweds Lea (Melanie Laurent) and François (Melvil Poupaud) and village locals Michel (NielsRoland (Brad Pitt), an American writer, and his wife, Vanessa (Angelina Jolie), arrive in a tranquil and picturesque seaside resort in 1970s France, their marriage in apparent crisis. As they spend time with fellow travelers, including young newlyweds Lea (Melanie Laurent) and François (Melvil Poupaud) and village locals Michel (Niels Arestrup) and Patrice (Richard Bohringer), the couple begins to come to terms with unresolved issues in their own lives.… Expand

Director: Angelina Jolie

Genre(s): Drama, Romance

Rating: R

Runtime: 122 min

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Critic Reviews

Joe Neumaier

Nov 14, 2015

Jolie Pitt, in her third film as a director, infuses her original screenplay with a sparseness reminiscent of Hemingway’s tales of mislaid love and Michelangelo Antonioni’s cinematic alienation. But By the Sea is its own lovely creation, deadly serious about how grief divides, conquers and possibly unites. Read full review

Bilge Ebiri

Nov 12, 2015

You keep watching not just because she and Brad and the Mediterranean are beautiful, but also because small, surprising details start to take on great importance. Read full review

Christopher Gray

Nov 11, 2015

If it stumbles when it seeks our sympathy, it thrives when it's exploiting our fascination with the surface of things, and all that's unknowable underneath. Read full review

Andrew O'Hehir

Nov 11, 2015

The result is something like a weepy Lifetime melodrama told in the languorous, self-indulgent style of European art cinema, as if Michelangelo Antonioni or Bernardo Bertolucci had wound up in debt to multiple ex-wives and were forced to churn out straight-to-cable movies, circa 1986. Read full review

Empire Terri White

Dec 14, 2015

A Sheltering Sky-lite romantic travelogue that, despite its two leads, lacks any real spark. Read full review

Stephanie Merry

Nov 12, 2015

By the Sea is dazzlingly gorgeous, as are its stars. But peeling back layer upon layer of exquisite ennui reveals nothing but emptiness, sprinkled with stilted sentiments. Read full review

Alonso Duralde

Nov 6, 2015

If By the Sea weren’t so aggressively humorless, it might almost qualify as camp, so unsuccessful is its pursuit of weighty drama. Unintentional laughs are hard to come by here; instead, there are yawns aplenty. Read full review

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User Reviews

LADYGAGAGreece

Dec 6, 2015

"By the Sea" is an amazing work of art for the fans of indie cinema. The atmosphere of the mid-70s, the soundtrack, the amazing places of Malta, the dramatic acting constitute a movie that is going to seduce you.

5 of 9 users found this helpful54

delighted2

Nov 14, 2015

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A lovely,k lovely movie. A slow paced character study that allows Pitt and Jolie to exude emotion and feeling with little use of words. Brad and Angelina are believable as a edge on the edge of no return. Has its funny moments watching the two lead characters eat snacks while spying on the couple next door. Brad was especially believable as a man willing to give his all to get his wife and marriage back. Angelina expresses emotion through her eyes. A lovely setting, a lovely movie.… Expand

4 of 7 users found this helpful43

annbd

Dec 28, 2017

It's such a pleasure to see photos of Angelina Jolie, but to see her in a movie, more like herself - elegant, extremely beautiful, with this female vulnerability, but also radiating power and respect - indescribable. Also good directed sad, life story.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

NickLikesMovies

Dec 5, 2015

"By the Sea" is visually gorgeous and Angelina Jolie shows strong potential with some great directing moments, but the movie is just so sluggish and boring. The performances are solid, the writing is fine, it just doesn't work. Something feels off through the duration of the film, and"By the Sea" is visually gorgeous and Angelina Jolie shows strong potential with some great directing moments, but the movie is just so sluggish and boring. The performances are solid, the writing is fine, it just doesn't work. Something feels off through the duration of the film, and increases as the film goes on. It's way too long, and would have benefited from cutting off at least 40 minutes.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

MattBrady99

Dec 15, 2015

I wish the waves will take me away and maybe I might find the meaning to the movie.

By The Sea is about a married couple who takes a vacation in France in the 1970s and find that their time in a sleepy seaside town, complete with a unique array of locals, strengthens their bond andI wish the waves will take me away and maybe I might find the meaning to the movie.

By The Sea is about a married couple who takes a vacation in France in the 1970s and find that their time in a sleepy seaside town, complete with a unique array of locals, strengthens their bond and reaffirms their marriage.

Through out my years reviewing movies on this site, I always avoid using words like "pretentious" or "too arty", as I normally don't think that. To me, if a film what's to tell it's story in a unique way with the power of art and visuals that's done well, then I don't think it's pretentious or too arty. Everyone has different taste and I know it's kind of beating a dead horse right now since I keep bringing that up, but I do that just to keep everyone in mind that my opinion and what I have to say for movies is just me. But today might change, as I watched a movie that I can look at and call it pretentious, overly doing it and lacks a purpose. By The Sea is an underwhelming arty mess that has a hidden message that's still unclear. The movie demands to be analysis.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt deliver decent performances and there were a few good shots that's nice to look at. But everything else felt force and while watching it I was kind of annoyed, because it has no weight to it when it came to the story and the character's deep motivation that came off sloppy. Jolie has a vision, I mean every director has a vision, but the must crushing and difficult thing is to bring that vision to the big screen. It isn't easy for some directors, because sometimes they can pull it off and sometimes don't; Jolie sadly falls into the "don't".

Overall By the Sea is a pretentious, underwhelming movie with a muddled story that tries so hard to have a meaning.… Expand

0 of 3 users found this helpful03

The3AcademySins

Nov 13, 2016

When I first saw the trailer for "By the Sea" I was excited to see this movie! Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in a hard hitting drama? AND Jolie is directing and writing? Sign me up! I expected an extremely personal narrative about a married couple going through a rough patch. Instead, I gotWhen I first saw the trailer for "By the Sea" I was excited to see this movie! Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in a hard hitting drama? AND Jolie is directing and writing? Sign me up! I expected an extremely personal narrative about a married couple going through a rough patch. Instead, I got an embarrassing mess. Jolie tries WAY to hard to mimic the ennui that French art films are known for. What she fails to realize is that ennui DRIVES the action, whereas in By The Sea, it kills the story. The plot is laughably easy to guess. The pacing makes this two hour lifetime drama feel like four hours. The color palette is atrocious and incredibly ugly to look at. Who was Jolie trying to impress in making this movie? Why was this movie made? Was Brad Pitt high the entire time it was filming? WHY WAS THIS MOVIE MADE? No wonder Brangelina fell apart two months after this was released.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

raefon

Dec 25, 2015

Oh my god, to say this movie if you can call it that is rubbish is an understatement, Jolie should stick to her day job of being a skeleton model to the African nation rather than bring such rubbish to the silver screen.

It has not a single redeeming quality, with the acting, setting,Oh my god, to say this movie if you can call it that is rubbish is an understatement, Jolie should stick to her day job of being a skeleton model to the African nation rather than bring such rubbish to the silver screen.

It has not a single redeeming quality, with the acting, setting, plot and characters willing me to wish a gunmen would enter the cinema to put me out of my misery.

Send the reals to Syria and ISIS would be blowing themselves up to save watching this all the way through.

Avoid at all costs.… Expand

2 of 3 users found this helpful21

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