The Deep Blue Sea

One of Terence Rattigan's most celebrated plays is given a new screen adaptation in this drama written and directed by Terence Davies. Hester Page (Rachel Weisz) is rescued in the midst of a suicide attempt by her landlady Mrs. Elton (Ann Mitchell) when she smells gas. As those around her ponder why a beautiful woman would choose such a fate, we learn that Hester is not really Hester at all -- she's actually Lady Collyer, the wife of well-known and respected judge Sir William Collyer (Simon Russell Beale). However, Lady Collyer has never known love or satisfaction in her marriage, and she fell into an affair with Freddie Page (Tom Hiddleston), a former RAF pilot. Lady Collyer has become hopelessly infatuated with Freddie, leaving her husband and living with Freddie under an assumed identity. But the woman who now calls herself Hester soon discovers she loves Freddie far more than he loves her, and between his drinking and neglect for her, it seems she's given up her old life for one that has no future. This marks the second time The Deep Blue Sea has been brought to the screen; Vivien Leigh starred in the 1955 version directed by Anatole Litvak.