SWEPT FROM THE SEA By Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Sony Pictures Entertainment/TriStar Pictures Director: Beeban Kidron Writer: Tim Willocks Cast: Vincent Perez, Rachel Weisz, Ian McKellen, Joss Ackland, Kathy Bates, Tom Bell, Zoe Wanamaker, Tony Haygarth, Fiona Victory
What better location for a sweeping romance than atop a rocky knoll overlooking the raging waters of England's Cornish coast? In adapting Joseph Conrad's sea story embracing the love of two young people who are reviled by their community, screenwriter Tim Willocks has done quite a job in opening up a 30-page story into a two-hour epic. The movie features director Beeban Kidron's exploitation of dramatic vistas, a solid sense of period, and two performers who could soon become household names.
"Swept from the Sea," taken from Conrad's story "Amy Foster," is somewhat autobiographical, giving its audience the feel for the variety of experiences which filled the novelist's stirring life. In dramatizing the narrative of a Russian who sailed for the New World in the late 19th century, survived a shipwreck and later succumbed to pneumonia, Conrad recollects his own father, Apollo Korzeniowski, who was exiled to a remote Russian province because of his political activities while Joseph later became the victim of tuberculosis.
Opening amid the tempestuous clime of poverty-stricken folk in Russia, Ms. Kidron takes us on a journey which begins with a long voyage embarked upon by scores of people in a train's cattle car, transferring to a rickety ship in Hamburg for the flight to America. Yanko (Vincent Perez), the sole survivor of a wreck, is washed ashore at Cornwall, believing at first that his buddies sailed on to America. The bearded, filthy, wild-eyed immigrant, knowing not a word of English, is looked upon with terror by the rural residents but treated kindly by the most educated of its inhabitants, Dr. James Kennedy (Ian McKellen) and with passionate care by Amy Foster (Rachel Weisz).
The romance between Amy and Yanko unfolds in flashback as Dr. Kennedy, an otherwise kind and generous physician, recounts his memories to a patient he is treating for gangrene. Miss Swaffer (Kathy Bates) motivates the story, asking the doctor why he is so resentful of Amy, especially since Swaffer has been so compassionate toward the unhappy woman.
The story unfolds. After Amy washes the hands of feet of her Slavic visitor, Yanko goes to work on Mr. Swaffer's (Joss Ackland) land without pay, a virtual slave, while Amy continues her domestic services to the Swaffer family as an indentured servant. Both Amy and Yanko are treated with scorn by the neighbors. Because Amy's mother, Mary (Zoe Wanamaker) and her father Isaac (Tom Bell) want little to do with their daughter, Amy retaliates by speaking not a word, taking refuge in silence and convincing the town thereby that she is retarded. Similarly Yanko, who speaks no English, is considered obtuse, until one day he dazzles Dr. Kennedy with some sharp moves on the chess board. Kennedy teaches the stranger English while he is taught chess by the Russian expert, but as Yanko's attachment to Amy grows, Kennedy becomes strangely resentful.
"Swept from the Sea" is the sort of romance that could bring the more sentimental members of an audience to tears but what gives it a modern feel is its treatment of the age-old theme of hatred based on cultural differences. Amy and Yanko are both outsiders, she because of her refusal to mix into the society, he simply because he is a foreigner. Looked upon with utter disdain by the rural folk, Yanko is unable even to participate in church services, and wonders why the people of this Cornish community are so hard. What he never quite understands is that while the residents reject Amy as well, they will defend "her interests" because she is at least one of them. The treatment of class and caste keeps makes the movie feel alive, never parched and made to feel like a "classic," while some solid acting grasps our attention.
Rachel Weisz, known to moviegoers principally for her title role in "Tom and Viv," comes across as an actress with a difference. Her eyes focus in a fixed stare on the stranger, and the romantic glow which is present from the start gives them the glassy appearance of sight corrected by contact lenses. Her outwardly prim demeanor is contrasted by Vincent Perez's look of untamed abandon, the behavior of the two meeting in some middle ground as Yanko adapts to this "civilized" world and Amy becomes emotionally unfettered. Sir Ian McKellen is superb as the mild-mannered physician who makes house calls--even in drenching downpours--whose one weakness seems his inability to accept the romantic involvement of the lovers. "Swept by the Sea," a minor work by one of England's greatest novelists, should serve to bring that writer the extra attention he deserves. Rated PG-13. Running Time: 115 minutes. (C) 1997 Harvey Karten
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