James Cosmo as Howard and Brid Brennan as Annie in Music Box Films' "My Sailor, My Love" playing at the Coral Gables Art Cinema. (Photo courtesy of Music Box Films)
Finnish director Klaus Haro’s English-language feature debut “My Sailor, My Love” is a multi-layered family drama that shouldn’t be mistaken for a sappy twilight years romance.
The title itself is deceiving lending the notion that this might be the stuff of a Hallmark movie. This film with the unfortunate title is so much smarter than that.
The screenplay by Kirsi Vikman and Jimmy Karlsson examines the relationships between adult children and their aging parents, regrets, resentment and loneliness, and yes, that twilight romance.
The sailor in the title is Howard (James Cosmo) whose love of the sea kept him away from his wife perhaps plunging her into a depression and his daughter, Grace (Catherine Walker), left alone with the mother.
Now when we meet Howard, he’s living the life of a hermit in a home on the coast of Ireland after his wife has died. His daughter has chosen a career as a nurse no doubt due to the caretaking she had to do while growing up. We see her making the frequent trek to the out of the way compound. She brings him food and checks on his well being. Not that he wants any of that. There, she deals with the curmudgeonly Howard who refuses to use a washer to clean his clothes but leaves them filthy and soaking in a sink, but won't listen to anyone's advice, especially not Grace's.
Curmudgeonly loner Howard (James Cosmo) finds new life when he meets a woman and her family. (Photo courtesy of Music Box Films)
He wants to be left to himself where he focuses his attention on his favorite chair and on the newspaper's crossword puzzles. Interrupt the routine, and Howard has a biting remark that’s as emotionally cutting as any physical slap.
The situation between Grace’s work hours and her constant trips to check on her father has her marriage to Martin (Aidan O'Hare) hanging on a thread. In order to save her own sanity, she posts an ad for a twice-a-week housekeeper.
Howard (James Cosmo) and Annie (Brid Brennan) realize their budding romance in "My Sailor, My Love." (Photo courtesy of Music Box Films)
The widowed Annie (a captivating Brid Brennan) takes the job, hopping a bus to the out of the way home. Most likely due to what's lacking in her life, she enjoys the tasks of preparing a hot cooked meal, preparing it beautifully on the table and calling Howard to supper.
But she’s interrupted the crossword, and we know where that’s headed.
As he sits down to the dinner she's lovingly labored over, he asks the housekeeper how much his daughter is paying her to come. When she responds with the sum, he tells her that he’ll pay her far and above that for her to “never darken my door again.” Stands up and leaves the food.
Annie isn't one to take anyone's tantrums, so she storms off carrying the garbage bag full of the food. But when she opens the can, she finds a captain’s uniform in the trash.
It's touches something in Annie and for the actress Brennan, whose contemplative treatment of the garment is a truly wonderful moment in the film.
"My Sailor, My Love" was filmed on the west coast of Ireland. (Photo courtesy of Music Box Films)
It’s this sailor’s uniform that brings the two together. When Howard finds the dry-cleaned uniform, he realizes Annie has brought something back in him.
They begin a romance and Howard gets his spark back – he plays with her grandchildren, invites her family over for Christmas dinner all the while keeping this from his daughter.
When Grace does discover the hidden secret – Annie has even moved into the home adding photographs of her family to the mantle – what bubbles up is years and years of mental anguish that has tormented Grace and now she’s ready to blow.
How Grace and her father reconcile and if Annie and Grace will ever accept one another is the complicated turn of the film.
Yet, it isn’t to be denied that there are some cliched moments, yet they only slightly take away from its almost pure perfection. One of the most cloying is as Annie and Howard sort apples plucked from trees that had been abandoned for years that are now thriving among the laughter and life that’s been brought back to the land, their hands touch. It’s the chemistry reset for both that cements their romance. But, it’s a TV movie moment. But Cosmo and Brennan bring what could have been a hackneyed bit to both characters' arcs and make it work.
Walker as Grace, the lost adult child still longing for her father’s approval and love, creates the drama. Her needs and wants never recognized and Walker mining every bit of emotion to exhibit the character's ups and downs.
James Cosmo as Howard, a former sailor, who finds his joy after years of being a recluse in "My Sailor, My Love." (Photo courtesy of Music Box Films)
Filmed in Achill, Co. Mayo, off of Ireland’s west coast, director of photography Robert Nordstrom captures the misty shores creating a metaphor for the turbulence in all of the characters’ lives. There's a coldness among the greenery. Overhead shots of the long, winding road along the coast are beauty shots that linger.
Everything about “My Sailor, My Love” is determined and detailed except for that pesky title.
Now playing in theaters, in Miami at the Coral Gables Art Cinema, it will arrive streaming platforms on Oct. 24. But see it in the theater for its astonishing beauty.
