My Sailor, My Love is a late-life romance drama that gives its elder leads the respect of complex, or at least lived-in, characterization.
Howard (James Cosmo) is a retired sea captain, long widowed, who lives alone on the coast of rural Ireland. Broad, windswept, and isolated, much like the house in which he lives, his only visitor is his daughter, Grace (Catherine Walker). When she suggests hiring a housekeeper – the undies stewing in the kitchen sink suggests he’s sorely in need of one – Howard suspects she’s trying to put him in a home; which may well be true.
Grace hires Annie (Bríd Brennan), mother of the local publican, to visit a couple of times a week. Initially, it does not seem like a good match: she natters, distracting him from the crossword, smiling while he stews. Their falling in love is, by the conventions of the genre, inevitable, but Kirsi Vikman and Jimmy Karlsson’s script skirts cliché in favor of something altogether more knotty. The setting might be idyllic, rolling hills and towering cliffs – DoP Robert Nordström’s cinematography gives the feel of a perpetual light, cool spring day – but all is not as simple as it first seems.
Even as Howard and Annie find themselves settling unexpectedly into a traditional domestic relationship – she cooks, he serves; he trims the tuffety front lawn, she looks on admiringly – Grace’s own life, her marriage and her job, are drifting onto the rocks.
Howard and Grace’s relationship is complicated, often ugly. She is bitter, understandably so; he, in ways that become increasingly clear, is selfish and not so inherently lovable as we might suppose. What initially seems to be the well-worn story of two experienced people coming together, with the unsympathetic daughter as an obstacle, becomes instead a depiction of what it means when someone you love treats you as a reminder of past mistakes and tries to move on without you.
Director Klaus Härö manages to chart a course through these tricky thematic waters with a keen eye for dramatic detail – Howard’s solitary journeys to the front door takes on changing resonance as the tide of his life ebbs and flows.
Those expecting an age-old old-age love story may find themselves out of their depths, but if you’re willing to trust in the crew then My Sailor, My Love is a safe cinematic harbor.
