Vassilis Kroustallis reviews the Lance Hammer drama 'Queen at Sea', which world premiered at the 76th Berlin Film Festival.
The ascending stairs and two elderly people trying to ascend (the woman, noticeably frail) are the all-too-prominent props US director Lance Hammer (Ballast) uses in his harrowing but terrific new UK/US film 'Queen at Sea', which premiered at the 2026 Berlin Film Festival.
Informed by personal experiences and suitably filmed in the UK in an almost 'workshop' rehearsal style (remember Mike Leigh?), the film watches closely as four people. Amanda, a French academic teaching at Newcastle (Juliette Binoche), has been estranged from her husband, now living in Canada. Her teenage daughter, Sara (Florence Hunt), comes with her to London to visit Amanda's mother. Amanda's mother, Leslie (Anna Calder-Marshall), has advanced dementia, and she's currently in the caregiving hands of her husband (and Amanda's stepfather), Martin (Tom Courtenay).
Hammer (in his role as a screenwriter) cleverly shifts the film's focus from the familiar trope of the illness to the sexual activity (thrown at us almost without a moment's notice and to Amanda's surprise) between Leslie and Martin. Martin insists that sex and intimacy are the only way his ailing wife can have some comfort in her life. At the same time, Amanda doubts that her mother's decision-making process remains intact (Leslie can only speak a few words, and she needs help taking her own food).
The setting of sexual activity works both as a moral focus and a narrative instigator to initiate (in the early part of the film) police mechanisms (extremely informed and competent), which themselves force the two main players, Amanda and Martin, to make the final decisions regarding Leslie. At the same time, Sara finally seems to break out of the mold and become a fully independent, lovable woman (in a series of calculated editing decisions that contrast her bloom with Leslie's decline).
Characters are roundly portrayed and never left to chance. Leslie is more than her disease; she's an artist who draws, and she seems to understand and respond to her needs (but the point is that neither she nor her relatives can translate this into concrete reasoning). Played with both reserve and fearlessness by Anna Calder-Marshall, she almost steals the show from her two more prominent co-stars. Courtenay as Martin still retains the old fiersomeness she has exhibited in his career; he's not an easy adversary to fight -even at his most suave (while his intentions are noble). Amanda is torn between the two generations, and Binoche plays her with the characteristic empathy and directedness she has cultivated throughout the years (and many performances).
The film's tone starts expectedly bleak, yet the sex factor somehow offsets some casual comedy at times. Yet the film's despair comes not from perceiving but from reasoning. Things don't escalate by observing Leslie's mental decline (even though she does), but by the perceived inability of reasoning to give a satisfying solution to the issue, until the film's last twist.
Adolpho Veloso (The Train Dreams) keeps his camera mostly away from close-ups and attempts to navigate the living space where Leslie lives (but in static shots). Characters appear at the top-left or top-right corners of the frame, while the exuding lighting suggests this is an ordinary issue (which it is not). In contrast, Sara's love story takes place almost exclusively at evenings/nights, with almost sultry lighting.
Without offering easy viewing but shying away even from first-level sympathy toward its ill character, 'Queen at Sea' handles its epistemological and moral issues as its own silent tragedy. At times, it struggles to offer a clear reconciliation of the problems it poses. Yet overall, it is an expert take on family dynamics in cases in which reasoning has to be invoked but is denied.
'Queen at Sea' premiered at the 76th Berlin Film Festival (Competition)
Vassilis Kroustallis
