The Sea Change (1998) Poster

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4/10
Fear of drowning
jotix10019 November 2010
Warning: Spoilers
The phobia Rupert experienced about drowning, was brought about by a careless father. It seems to be the cause for the way he looked at life when he became an adult, or so, the creators of this English comedy want us to believe. Rupert, who became a successful, and ruthless lover, had no pity for anyone that ever worked for him.

Even with Alison, his lovely girlfriend, Rupert never got to express the way he felt about her. The only way he was able to express what he felt for her translated in having his secretary buy her expensive presents that, while welcomed by the gorgeous woman, she felt a personal touch by Rupert would have been better than receiving meaningless gifts.

Rupert gets a good lesson in life when he decides to return to London earlier than he had planned, in order to surprise Alison, whose birthday is going to be celebrated. Everything goes bad for this perfectionist. He cannot travel in first class, as it is his custom. To make matters worse, he is seated next to a rough construction worker, Chas, from London traveling in his undershirt. If that were not enough, Rupert has to share a room with the man. One thing comes out of the experience: Rupert is thrown in the hotel pool by Chas, and suddenly, he can swim!

The allure of watching this English film, directed by Michael Bray, was catching Ray Winstone in a comedy, not exactly a departure from the heavy types which he plays normally. Alas, his participation comes only toward the last part of the film, and Mr. Winstone is 'drowned' by the material he was asked to play. Faring better, Sean Chapman, who is the ruthless lawyer. Maryam D'Abo does what she can as Alison, the frustrated girlfriend. The film offers some laughs, but do not expect too much, that way, perhaps, it will be enjoyed more.
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1/10
Dire, absolutely dire.
crocodile004 February 2004
Terrible, terrible, terrible. The script, the plot, the acting, are dire. Possibly the most unbeliveable protaganist I have ever seen. One wonders if the writers have made it out of secondary school. It goes to show, you can't judge a DVD by it's cover.
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2/10
File under: Avoid as you would the plague
Bwim5 September 2005
Uptight financier Rupert has a chance meeting with builder Chas, a bit of rough. What follows has been done a million times more and a million times better in other films as a nights drinking with Chas and his down to earth wisdom bring out, in Rupert, the happy-go-lucky, fun luvin' man within.

I know that actors have to make a living but for Ray Winstone the product of what was probably only a 5 day shoot is something he would rather forget. 'The Sea Change' looks like it had the production budget of one episode of 'Holyoakes'.

Now you know why you have never heard of this film.
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7/10
Surprisingly nice movie
harald4 January 2003
Before watching movies on the TV I often check IMDB to see if the movie is worth while watching.

I was not expecting too much when I saw the score of 4.8 at the time, but I read the reviews, and decided to watch it.

Movie summary

Rupert is an achieving and hard working business man, trampling on everyone at work, and without the capability to be nice to the one he loves. But from the beginning you get some indications that he is a nice man underneath.

Alison is a more relaxed and nice woman who somehow has fallen in love with Rupert.

Rupert decides to go to Barcelona to close a deal, on an important day for both Rupert and Alison. He gets stuck on his way back, and is stuck with "common people", and he is not able to hold his promises to Alison.

The rest of the story I leave to watchers of the movie, but the main story holds few surprises.

Very quickly you get to know the characters, some of the characters are maybe a little bit unrealistic, but you get the point for their roles. You also feel for all the main characters, and you do want to know how the film ends.

The film has a very "cheap" look, it is obvious that it doesn't have a high budget. The music score is maybe the worst part of the production, some of the dialouge is bad. But the most important parts of communications are ok, I particularly liked the character Chas (Ray Winstone), save the over-common clothing.

The film has a light mood to it, and is 100% not Hollywood. It has a resemblance to a farce on theater, but its story is serious enough.

I very much enjoyed the movie, and recommend it to everyone, it is probably not a movie for action-loving youth.

It was first after watching the movie, when I returned to IMDB to give my score of 7 that I discovered that the weighting system of IMDB has been very unfair to this movie. It has (at the time of writing) a score of 4.8, and a arithmetic mean of 7.3. I never hesitate to watch movies with a score around 7, but below 5 is not normally my movie.
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7/10
A good romp
smeeagingoan5 December 2002
Like the first reviewer, I think this was a real fun film and I would echo that the best parts were the scenes dealing with airport security and airline staff. It shows well the all too common frustration when one remonstrates with personnel who want to treat you like cattle in a slaughter-house, and of course they have the upper hand and do not hesitate to use it. I don't think this will ever be an in-flight movie!

Sean Chapman overdoes the high-handed, arrogant banker a little but probably that was intentional, it made it hard to identify with him.

I would definitely watch this again.
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10/10
A beautifully polished stylish gem
martinlunn1 September 2002
I watched this film primarily because I read that part of it was set in Barcelona, but that is the least reason to watch it. It is a hilarious depiction of the English class system, reserve, and cynicism. It has hilarious scenes, made all the funnier for anticipating what is about to evolve.
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7/10
Great fun!
ajji-224 June 2001
I caught this movie on the telly, late one night. i was a in a particularly bad mood, so it goes to the credit of this film that even though the plight of the protagonist reminded me of my own woes, i was enjoying the film thoroughly (despite poor satellite reception). i even laughed out loud a few times. the stewardess/pilot scenes are a scream. all in all, good entertainment.
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8/10
Like a British Planes trains and Automobiles
r_hamilton_uk3 August 2015
Warning: Spoilers
This film takes you on a comic ride from London to Spain and back again. The main character is not that likable at first, being a rich guy who is really full of himself, but that's kind of the point and you see him start to get his comeuppance pretty quickly, and he grows along the way.

The best thing about it though has to be seeing one of Ray Winstone's earlier roles. There's an element of the darker side he is often associated with, but ultimately he is a likable presence here. The relationship between him and the main character starts out very antagonistic, but the difficulties they undergo on the journey bring them together in the end, in a way that made me think of Steve Martin and John Candy in Trains, Planes and Automobiles, though the rest of the plot is quite different. Definitely worth a watch.
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