Queen at Sea
When Amanda (Juliette Binoche, "The Taste of Things") walks in on her stepfather Martin (Tom Courtenay, "45 Years") having sex with her mother Leslie (Anna Calder-Marshall, TV's 'Harlots'), who is in an advanced state of dementia, she becomes angry enough about her mother's inability to consent that she calls the police, setting off a chain of events that will render Leslie even more of a "Queen at Sea."
Laura's Review: B+
Only writer/director/editor Lance Hammer's second film after 2008's "Ballast" won both the Jury Prize and Best Supporting Performance for both Courtenay and Calder Marshall at the 2026 Berlin Film Festival and it also has a lot in common with 2026's Cannes Film Festival winner "Fjord" as both films question just how much local government should become involved in private family matters. But "Queen at Sea" works from the inside out by putting two family members at odds over the care of a third. While the filmmaker has stated his sympathies lie with Amanda's stance, it is awfully difficult not to side with Martin, as Tom Courtenay's performance, so full of love, patience and compassion, will break your heart.
Amanda is upset because her mother's husband had previously agreed to stop having sex with his wife, but even she is surprised by what she sets in motion by calling the police. Two constables arrive and the woman, Kate (Elizabeth Rushbrook), kindly addresses both Amanda and Leslie and is reassured by both that they are OK, but not having faced this situation before she calls it in and the next thing Amanda knows her mother's bedroom has been dubbed a crime scene, Martin is arrested and Leslie is sent for what is essentially a rape exam, something Sexual Assault Referral Centre doctor (Marie-Elle Vooijs) cannot complete because Leslie becomes so distraught. Amanda, who is in London on leave from her Newcastle University position with her sixteen year-old daughter Sarah (Florence Hunt, TV's 'Bridgerton'), realizes she must now stay with her mother, leaving Sarah on her own. Martin, who insists that psychiatrists are of two minds on the subject of sex with dementia and that Leslie is usually the one to initiate physical relations, returns to his home even though he's been ordered not to and Amanda will give up on keeping the seniors apart when her mother keeps returning to her husband sleeping on the couch downstairs. When the social worker, Gemma (Jean Pemberton), arrives the next morning, Amanda even covers for Martin, stating that she misunderstood and asked him to be present at their meeting. Amanda admits that Martin loves her mother dearly, is her caregiver and that Leslie is dependent on him, yet she tells Martin that he cannot handle things anymore and that their home, which features a steep staircase, isn't safe for either of them.
And so, Leslie is deposited in a care home, its manager Jonathan (Steven Cree) catering to her artistic bent by steering her towards the art room. But the very next day, they'll get a call from Jonathan for an incredibly ironic reason and Leslie is whisked back home, Martin now to be assisted by a home nurse, Janise (Alison Pargeter). And Hammer finds ways to layer ironies upon ironies, his conclusion something few will see coming.
Binoches is less sympathetic here than Courtenay, perhaps because Hammer has written Martin as somewhat conciliatory but Amanda never apologizes, even when she gets what she wants only for the situation to worsen. Still the always dependable Binoche convinces us of her concern for her mother and, even more interestingly, her care in coaxing a woman she hasn't been around all that much of late. She also shares a scene with Courtenay near film's end which allows her to recognize his worth. Courtenay is devastating as a man who found love a second time late in life only to have the woman's daughter completely upend his world. He and Calder-Marshall establish a strong bond under less than ideal circumstances, the actress having to undergo several humiliating experiences which she handles with a brave humanity.
But Hammer also includes Sarah's private life, cutting away to her with schoolfriends as well as a burgeoning relationship with James (Cody Molko), who Amanda will find together in her and Sarah's apartment when they thought she would not be home. Amanda buys her daughter condoms and gives them to her with no lecture, nor even the knowledge that the kids are having sex (they weren't but do), but this never really adds to the consent argument, nor anything much to the film in general.
Cinematographer Adolpho Veloso shoots in 35mm and a 1.66 : 1 aspect ratio, almost as boxy as his work on "Train Dreams," again keeping his subjects low in the frame for medium and long shots. Unlike that film, though, production designer Soraya Gilanni Viljoen ("Blue Jean") gives the film a pale palette which accentuates the people in the frame and gives the film a clean modernity.
Greenwich Entertainment releases "Queen at Sea" in select theaters on 10/30/26, expanding in subsequent weeks.
