The Almond And The Seahorse Review (Digital)

For an audience, seeing an actor tread into new territory and do something unexpected is often an unexpected delight. For well-known comedic performers, taking on a dramatic role can be a gamble. However, when the gamble pays off, we see audiences shake off expectations and boundaries that can stifle an actor’s potential. Adam Sandler in Punch Drunk Love and Whoopi Goldberg in The Colour Purple were able to move beyond audience expectations, develop their range and maintain long-lasting careers in comedy and drama. It’s easy to see why making an unexpected move like this would be a draw for Rebel Wilson. Over the past few years, we’ve seen the Pitch Perfect actor make significant public changes and announcements regarding her personal life, so it only makes sense that she would also want to shake things up in her professional life and perhaps move away from the restrictions of Fat Amy’s lasting legacy.

On paper, The Almond and The Seahorse sounds like a compelling dramatic opportunity for a well-known comedic performer, but, on-screen, any semblance of an unexpected triumphant role for Wilson utterly flops. Sarah (Rebel Wilson) is adapting to a life far removed from the one she envisioned for herself and her partner, Joe (Celyn Jones). Following the removal of a benign brain tumour, Joe’s memory is deteriorating rapidly, leaving him panicked and confused about Sarah’s ageing and reluctance to move forward with their plans to have children. Sarah loves her husband, but grieves who he once was, noting that everything that made up who he once was has changed. Sarah begins a relationship with Toni (Charlotte Gainsbourg) whose partner Gwen (Trine Dyrholm) suffered a brain injury and has lived with the symptoms of memory impairment for several years. The film follows Sarah and Toni as they form a romantic connection and friendship while also navigating a life loving someone who will eventually forget them.

The Almond and The Seahorse (named after the parts of the brain that work together to store memories) is very well-intentioned but extremely surface-level. Scenes involving the ramifications of Joe’s developing memory loss feel unnatural and staged. Celyn Jones certainly has the intensity as a performer to convey emotion and distress, but there’s something insincere about the film’s approach. In one scene, Joe is directed by an alarm to take some medicine, he becomes distracted by a ringing telephone and the urge to light up a cigarette, so forgets about his tablet until Sarah phones to remind him again. As this all plays out, Joe speaks aloud to himself, narrating his thoughts and emotions in a way that feels entirely for the audience’s benefit and whiffs of high school drama classes. Alongside this, both Gwen and Joe often appear childish (playing hide and seek, making silly jokes), which robs their characters of dignity and hinders the film from making an immersive reflection on what life is really like for brain injury survivors.

Yet it isn’t just the dialogue that makes the film feel glib. The movie’s overall aesthetics make the film feel manufactured and flimsy too. There’s an odd, too-bright lighting running through the movie, the kind you’d find in an Ikea showroom, which gives the proceedings the feel of cheaply made daytime telly. While Rebel Wilson brings an air of Hollywood to the movie, her consistent perfect blow-outs and camera-ready make-up feel disingenuous. Surely a woman going through such a traumatic and tumultuous time in her life should be able to live one day without looking like she just stepped out of a salon. The movie also struggles to say anything significant about living with a brain injury or looking after someone with a brain injury. Joe’s stay in a residential unit for brain injury survivors run by Dr Falmer (Meera Syal) seems as easy as checking into a quiet Premier Inn for a pleasant weekend away.

Although well-intentioned with a handful of nice performances, The Almond and The Seahorse has no grit, recognisable style, and very little to say or relate to. It has all the right ingredients of a true-to-life British Indie, but just lacks the confidence to get under the skin of its subject matter and subsequently morphs into something completely forgettable. It’s a real shame that Rebel Wilson’s gamble on a dramatic role doesn’t give her the material to stretch her legs as a performer. Hopefully, there will be another opportunity in the future for her to do something more substantial within an unfamiliar genre.

★

On digital platforms September 26th / Rebel Wilson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Celyn Jones, Meera Syal, Ruth Madeley, Alice Lowe, Trine Dyrholm / Dirs: Celyn Jones, Tom Stern / Picnik Entertainment, Mad As Birds Films / 15