Barry Ward brings sincerity and force to this well-intended, well-acted Brokeback drama of forbidden love in a remote north Wales fishing community. It comes from writer-director Helen Walsh, who is that rare and valuable figure in the arts world: a novelist who is of equal status as an original film-maker. (Her debut feature The Violators came out 11 years ago.)
Ward plays Jack, a middle-aged man beset with cares. He is getting too old for the hard physical labour of raking mussel beds; he co-owns this business jointly with his quarrelsome, boorish brother Dyfan (Celyn Jones), who resents the time Jack has spent away from work receiving treatment for cancer which is now in remission. Jack has been with his wife Maggie (Liz White) since they were 16; they are both concerned about their son Tom (Henry Lawfull) getting into bad company and failing to help with the mussel business – although they both like Tom’s smart, level-headed girlfriend Lois (a small role for Leisa Gwenllian, the star of the recent Welsh-language drama Effi o Blaenau).
Tom’s hoodlum acquaintances have been menacing and harassing local fisherman Bernie (Danny Webb) with dire results; Bernie has been employing an itinerant deckhand called Daniel (Lorne MacFadyen) whose chance meeting with Jack is the spark that ignites the story. The truth is that Jack is secretly gay, or bi, and the film achieves its poignancy and gravitas in showing us this suppressed, denied identity that has run in parallel with his official existence for decades. He and Daniel clearly are attracted to each other, and both know about a cruising ground near a deserted tin mine. The two men take out Bernie’s little fishing boat and a passionate, glorious affair develops when they are, in the title’s significant words, on the sea, away from the disapproval and bigotry of their community.
Interestingly, Jack’s gay identity is something that exists on a different plane to his outward persona: but it is no more or less real than the side of him that loves Maggie; though it is my regret about this film that the excellent Liz White is not given more scope to express her character’s inner life.
• On the Sea is in UK and Irish cinemas from 24 July.
