YEAR BY THE SEA (2016) is a pretty and pretty empty account of a "middle-aged" woman (and writer) who leaves her husband to rent a rustic cottage on Cape Cod to find herself. Good enough premise, but the Cape Cod she finds with its deserted towns, empty beaches, and retro cottage are all unrealistic, and that throws off the story. This one has everything but Patti Page singing "Old Cape Cod." Actually that might have worked better, to place the story in the 1950s. But I guess women didn't go "find themselves" in the 50s. The other old saw is that the locals immediately take Joan (Karen Allen) into their inner circle (ain't likely) so that she becomes involved in everyone's lives from the getgo. Anyway, she rents a cottage on a small island just off shore so that she has to row back and forth in a small dinghy.
While her husband back in the USA has been transferred to Wichita, she is befriended by a local free spirit named Joan (Celia Imrie) whose husband is dying in a hospice. Since they are both named Joan, they become instant best friends. You can tell Joan is a free spirit because she dances on one of those empty beaches and has a chuck wagon triangle hanging outside her front door rather than a doorbell. There's also the young woman who runs the little general store. She is a battered woman just waiting for someone to rescue her. Then there's the very friendly fisherman (Yannick Bisson) who takes an instant shine to Joan One (rather than Joan Two).
When the crabby husband (Michael Cristofer) comes to visit, all he does is complain about the rustic-ness of the place. When her friend/agent (S. Epatha Merkerson) comes to visit, all she does is complain that Joan One is not writing). Eventually the cliches overwhelm the story. To its credit, no one collects sea glass, but they do raid someone's house for firewood.
Much is made of the "off season," but it looks exactly like the "in season" part of the film. Mostly filmed in Wellfleet, the idyllic landscape in late summer/early fall would be jammed with tourists, but all we see are empty streets and no tourists ... not even one. Eventually both Joans have breakthroughs and start writing again (Joan Two is also a writer), and the film ends with the Joans scribbling and typing like mad. This makes Merkerson very happy since she seems to have acquired Joan Two as a client.
The only time we see any local inhabitants (as in extras) is when they have some sort of bizarre "race to the sea" on New Years Day. Despite its being January, they wear funny costumes and the race seems to be limited to women. I don't remember my Aunt Shirley (who still lives on the Cape) ever racing to the sea in costume our out of costume. Later, when the fisherman teaches Joan One how to clam, it's so hot he has to take off his shirt. That climate change thing must be going crazy on the Cape. I spent several summers in Falmouth when I was a kid. Even around 1960, this Cape Cod did not exist but the remnants of "old Cape Cod" were there and I remember them well.
Anyway, it was a nice try. Story is from a book by Joan Anderson (Joan Three) and directed by Alexander Janko (who seems to be primarily a musician and who graduated Princeton in 1991). To say this sea story has been watered down would be a cheap shot.
