Tell That to the Winter Sea is a beautifully tender film that you can’t help but gravitate towards emotionally. Greta Bellamacina and Amber Anderson are exceptional here in Jaclyn Bethany’s intimate and thoughtful picture.
Celebrating her upcoming marriage, bride-to-be Jo (Greta Bellamacina) invites her childhood friend and first love, Scarlet (Amber Anderson), on a girls’ trip to a country manor. However, despite drifting apart as adults, unresolved feelings still linger between them while the rest of the group enjoys the weekend away. With Jo about to embark on a new stage in her life but struggling to let go of the past, she reflects with Scarlet on the young girls they once were and the women they are becoming.
Life is a strange creature; it takes us down so many avenues and little alleyways that we are still determining if the destination will ever arrive. In Jaclyn Bethany’s melancholy-filled drama Tell That to the Winter Sea, we see two characters still on their journey but unable to make true peace with what happened. Jo feels she has done so successfully until she sees Scarlet again, and old memories awaken. It is a film filled to the brim with a vulnerability that almost leaves you anxious about what will happen by the time the credits roll.
When we are introduced to her, it looks as if Jo has it all put together. She has the career she dreamed of as a dancer, she is marrying someone who seems great, she is hosting her hen do, everything couldn’t be better for her, and we witness her tidy and sort out the home for her and her friends for the weekend. Yet if you look carefully enough, there is trepidation in her, something, or someone is on her mind, leaving her pensive. We soon realise that that person is Scarlet, the woman driving to the house. Someone who looks nervous and unsure of herself, seemingly walking into this weekend blind to what will happen or come from it.
It’s a great introduction to our two leads from director Jaclyn Bethany, so when Jo and Scarlet meet again face to face, the tension is present. Still, it evolves into a different form, becoming awkward more than anything. Scarlet can’t help but nervously smile at being around her friend, and Jo has that nervous awkwardness of approaching Scarlet, with the look of someone with a million different thoughts running through her head. However, there is warmth between them that can’t be ignored. It is these minor emotive notes that each actor presents to the audience at the beginning and then throughout the that make Tell That to the Winter Sea such an engaging watch. We know next to nothing about each character, yet their actions do so much to lock us in and have us invested in what is happening.
Greta Bellamacina and Amber Anderson do some astounding work here, most of it mentioned through their eyes and facial reactions. Early on, as the two are alone in the house, you sense these little spells that they are falling back into how they were when they were constantly around each other, and small smiles appear as they remember. As if finally seeing each other again is causing something to stir within them. At one point, Bellamacina’s Jo has to shake herself out of that spell just to keep going with their day. It’s utterly compelling work that only has you falling further into the story as the film progresses. They both pain us in their own ways; Scarlet is yearning almost desperately for something to awaken, but Jo wants and needs to keep moving on in her journey.
Bellamacina and Anderson, as you would expect, carry Tell That to the Winter Sea, quite magnificently so, in fact. Yet, introducing the bridal party allows for that intimate dynamic that was building for over half an hour to change somewhat. In a group environment, they can’t be as close, so instead, we get these little glances at each other, as if one knows precisely what the other is saying just with their eyes.
This introduction to the rest of the hen party allows co-writers Bellamacina and Bethany to also look at how friendships alter throughout the year; they have left no stone unturned here in their story. We see this group, who now lead different lives but have grown up from who they once were. In a moment of alone time between the pregnant Jade and Scarlet, Jade apologises for how much of a bitch she was to Scarlet when they were in school because she could see just how much Jo was falling for Scarlet.
It’s a small moment in the film, but a vital inclusion; rarely do people stay the same as they were in high school; we try to evolve as we age and experience life. Yet, those like Lily, who stayed with her faith and seemingly didn’t grow as much as the others, fall foul of the tendency of her childhood days of being passive-aggressive to who was the easy target. As if doing so will boost her up with her friends. Not realising that they have moved beyond that as people. In a film under 90 minutes in length, you can only be left impressed that Bellamacina and Bethany have been able to fit so many small character moments into Tell That to the Winter Sea, especially when the primary focus is on our two leads and their relationship to one another.
The only true unforgivable and jarring thing in Tell That to the Winter Sea is Bellamacina’s black wig in the flashback sequences; that thing is a shocker. Joking aside and despite this, those flashback sequences are vital and work well in giving us a fuller picture of Jo and Scarlet’s past together, even if the subtle hints throughout the film give us a firm idea of what happened between the two. We see two characters who want to escape their small-town life, be free of the chains that tie them down, and be their fully formed selves without judgment. Yet life never works out that way, and even in those flashback scenes, we see how concerned our characters are about specific things in their young lives.
Tell That to the Winter Sea is an intimate portrait of life. At times, it even feels like we are intruding on Jo and Scarlets’ long-due moment to reconnect. This is down to the performances of our two leads and the supporting cast, who help give us a better glimpse of how people change or even revert to type. It’s a distinctly human tale that feels so tender and thoughtful that you can’t help but fall for the characters—an essential watch.
★★★★★
Tell That To The Winter Sea will be in Select UK Cinemas from 31st May, TVOD / EST from 1st July and PVD & SVOD from 29th July
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