# Swept from the Sea (1997)

### reviewed by
Ben Hoffman

                           Member Online Film Critics Society

                                SWEPT FROM THE SEA

Screenwriter Tim Willocks has quite faithfully transposed Joseph Conrad's moving short story of Amy Foster. In turn, Director Beeban Kidron has done her best to stick with the script.

The story is about Amy (Rachel Weisz), a poor girl in Cornwall, England, regarded as not too bright by her parents and farmed out to work as a serving girl to Mr. and Mrs Smith (Tony Haygarth and Fiona Victory). On the surface, Amy is a placid person but inside rages a passionate woman waiting only for a chance to burst from her world surrounded by the sea. Many are the times she looks out to the sea from the wall that protects the town.

Meanwhile, in the Ukraine, scoundrels are filling the ears of young men with stories of fortunes to be made in America. These innocents sell every bit of their meager belongings to ship out to America. Once aboard ship, they are put into crowded holds, their money taken from them. Conditions are as if they were slaves.

All this suddenly changes when a storm comes up and there is a shipwreck, the only survivor being Yanko Gooral (Vincent Perez), a handsome young man who despite managing to land at the bottom of the sea wall, looks like a miserable excuse for a human. When he is discovered, the townspeople are antagonistic. His Ukrainian language sounds like the gibberish of a lunatic and they regard him as such, making life immediately miserable for him. Only one person comes to his aid, Amy Foster. As she had yearned, someone came from the sea . . . for her.

The only other person who is able to see anything human in Yanko is Dr. James Kennedy (in an excellent portrayal by Ian McKellen). This comes about only because the doctor and Yanko have a passion for chess. In the film, unlike the short story, it is the doctor who relates to a friend the story of Amy and Yanko.

The hypocrisy of the townspeople who treat Yank as a lunatic; the passion of Amy who loves Yanko, feeds him when she is warned to keep away from him, and brings him back to life; and the child of their union are all part of this interesting story.

Prominent in the cast is Kathy Bates as Miss Swaffer.

                      Directed by Bebban Kidron

    2.5 Bytes

      4 Bytes = Superb
      3 Bytes = Too good to miss
      2 Bytes = Average
      1 Byte  = Save your money

            Copyright 1998               Ben Hoffman

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