THB #546: Young Woman & The Sea

This movie is exactly the kind of movie that doesn’t get a theatrical release these days.

It’s a against-all-odds, kinda-sports, coming-of-age, fell good, coming-of-feminism super simple drama with a boatload (literally) of top-notch character actors whose names you are highly unlikely to know or even recognize in the credits (aside from Ms. Ridley) with gorgeous photography and a guarantee that at least 80% of the audience will applaud or cry with joy or both before it is over.

From a critic’s perspective, it is mediocre, in that it is by-the-book and not very adventurous as a piece of filmmaking. But that describes most of the filmed tales of young people achieving great things… films that significant numbers of people love and have watched over and over and over again, from the 1930s and in every decade since.

Joachim Rønning is certainly a filmmaker of amazing images. He is also completely capable of deep complexity. And watching this film, it is actually pretty striking in how he …