“It struck me that Amy Foster was one of the greatest love stories ever told, except that the love story itself had been left out.” — Tom Willocks (Screenwriter)

This lovely film based on Joseph Conrad’s “Amy Foster” is filled with the timeless grace of classic literature. The Cornwall English coast has rarely been so beautifully photographed as it is here in this story of two hearts saving each other from a life of loneliness.

Director Beeban Kidron uses Rachel Weisz’s open and beautiful face to marvelous effect, and Weisz brilliantly conveys the accumulated hurt and resolve of a girl who has lived her entire life deprived of love. Amy Foster is burdened with a father who resents her for the marriage her arrival into the world forced him into, and a mother who withholds her love because of a much deeper shame of which Amy is unaware. Amy counters their unkindness with a silence that seems strange to those around her, making her an outcast. She casts her heart upon the sea in the hopes it will be reborn.

This exquisitely beautiful work of art begins when the sole survivor of a shipwreck, a Russian man unable to communicate with those around him, washes ashore. He is treated in the same manner as Amy by the entire village, and their hearts connect instantly. A deeply moving yet simple act of human kindness when she washes his feet and offers him bread is never to be forgotten, setting the tone for the entire film. Vincent Perez gives a perfect performance as the stranger who is lost and helpless in a foreign land. For Amy it is as if the sea she so dearly loves has felt her hurt, and brought to her the love she has been denied. Ian McKellan and Kathy Bates also lend depth to this tender and tragic tale revolving around the sea.

Screenwriter Tom Willocks turned Conrad’s rather cold and distant story inside out, imbuing in it the romance it was lacking. Directed with sensitivity in a less is more school of filmmaking style, Beeban Kidron does a beautiful job in the rendering of this tale. The viewer is left with much the same feeling one gets after turning the final page in a work of timeless literature. A lovely film which will linger in the heart long after the credits roll, this deeply romantic film, laced with tenderness, will be loved by all in possession of a romantic heart. ( )