Shouting at the Sea is a beautifully tender film by Benjamin Verrall. Full of melancholy and affection, both Harry Michell and Maddie Rice are not just impressive but deeply authentic in their performances, drawing the audience in with their vulnerability.
Reconnecting after years apart, two friends (Harry Michell and Maddie Rice) spend the day in the teenage haunts of the seaside town where they grew up. Together, they confront the past, share who they’ve become, and finally conclude the conversation that had torn them apart.
Returning to a place with more bad memories than good ones is a tough challenge, especially when someone integral to those good memories remains there. You want to see them, show them how far you’ve come, but you can’t because that means returning to that place. Our characters in Benjamin Verrall’s Shouting at the Sea find themselves in a horrible double-edged sword.
The writing team of Kate Auster, Ruth Marshall, Amelia Rowcroft, and Benjamin Verrall has done something quite magnificent and smart with Shouting at the Sea. When we first meet Joe (Harry Michell) and Katherine (Maddie Rice), they have that horrible, uncomfortable, awkward tension that people who have just reconnected after many years have. You first imagine that it is the reconnection of two childhood sweethearts. However, it is something far more important and more complex than that.
You would imagine that a film like this would have some artificial piece to it to navigate the narrative. Yet, thanks to that excellent writing, we have this wonderfully organic film. Nothing feels forced; it is to friends coming back together with one, in a roundabout way, thanking the other for helping them when needed. For those who have had those types of friendships, one where that person knows everything about you and them, yet you don’t interact as often as you should because you are miles upon miles apart. You will feel every second of Shouting at the Sea. It certainly hit me on a tremendously personal level, and it takes some talent to present it on screen.
Harry Michell and Maddie Rice take that script and positively run with it, allowing the tone of their dynamic with one another to shift as and when the film needs it. After the chat on the bench, affection stays between the two. No matter what, there is a mutual affection for one another, something so resolutely tender that it supersedes love. When you have what Joe and Katherine have, it’s almost unspoken, often unexplainable, but always spectacularly special. With a chemistry as strong as these two have, it was obvious from the first minute that they were going to be fantastic together.
Taking advantage of our seaside location, cinematographer Tom Hooker presents us with some gorgeous visuals that show us the beauty and also the harshness of such a place. While the views are sensational, that sea and its waves are forever coming back at us. We see that beauty in its continuousness in this highly reflective short film. Even when we are away from the water, the bright lights of the arcade take centre stage. Yet darkness covers those lights as a constant reminder of past pain.
Shouting at the Sea is conscious of not telling us too much; it doesn’t need to. The film’s use of silence and non-verbal communication speaks volumes, allowing the audience to interpret the characters’ emotions and thoughts. We don’t need the specifics of what happened between the two in their past; they are there in the present, reconnecting in this meditative and absorbing drama.
★★★★
Shouting at the Sea will be playing at the HollyShorts Film Festival on August 16th. Tickets and further information is available here.
For more of our coverage of the HollyShorts Film Festival, please check out our reviews below.
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