The Sea

The book is not something to read if you are looking for a pacy novel. It reminded me a bit of Ishiguru's Remains of the Day in its leisurely pace and lack of plot. Banville loves words and its often a delight to discover new descriptions of familiar scenes - "Beyond was the railway line paved with jagged loose blue shale and giving off its mephitic whiff of ash and gas."

Following the death of his wife from cancer, Max Morden goes to stay in a boarding house by the sea, where he had his first childhood romance. The story flows in and out from his childhood, recent past and present, with no separation of chapter or scene. The reason for this becomes clear, as the narrator is often drunk and maudlin, reflecting on happier times but also the tragedies in his life. He has been drawn to the scene of happier times but also earlier tragedy, and to the reader its clear that the visit to pick over his past is not a good choice for his state of mind.


Spoiler alert -be warned

The film works much better at merging the different time periods with flashbacks, as you can instantly identify visually when a scene is set. As well as employing straight forward flashbacks, there are flashbacks within flashbacks, clever uses of objects and even, in a particularly affecting instance when Max is very drunk, the appearance of his frail hospitalised wife occupying a twin bed in his B&B room.
Ciaran Hinds manages to portray Max in a more sympathetic light. You can understand and sympathise with his heavy drinking more than in the book, because he is not the first person narrator.
The narrative hints at childhood tragedy from the very beginning, as Max enters the Cedars and has a flashback of parental hysteria at hearing the news. This keeps the viewer watching, intrigued to know what happens.
The characters are generally more fleshed out and rounded - Rufus Sewell's father is given much dialogue - except the children, Chloe and Myles, who are an enigma.

 In the book it was suggested that they just got out of their depth and it was an drowning accident, whereas in the film it is portrayed as a deliberate act. The reason for suicide is less clear and puzzling - could Max's advances towards Chloe have determined a suicide pact between brother and sister? It seems totally extraordinary and ends the film unsatisfactorily, after all that promisingly came before.