“Seagrass”

The power lies in what’s left unspoken in “Seagrass,” a devastating relationship drama from writer/director Meredith Hama-Brown. It’s shocking that this beautifully made film is her debut feature, and she exhibits a profound understanding and sensitive hand for exploring a woman’s perspective of what it means to be a wife, sister, and mother.

After a recent death in the family, Judith (Ally Maki) brings her husband John (Luke Roberts) and their two daughters (Nyha Huang Breitkreuz, Remy Marthaller) to a remote island retreat that claims to promote psychological healing and promises attendees that they will leave with a deeper connection. Things aren’t going great in her marriage, and the family’s channel of quality communication is at an all-time low (more accurately, it’s nonexistent). When Judith and John befriend another mixed race couple at the retreat, she can’t stop comparing her own fractured relationship with their seemingly perfect marriage. In the meantime, Stephanie and Emmy are feeling the overwhelming stress from the crumbling relationship of their parents and a growing emotional insecurity.

It’s a tense story that’s painful and poignant, and Hama-Brown writes with a raw realism that hits hard. She has an acute understanding of both adult and child relationships, giving an honest, accurate depiction of the tensions that can make or break a marriage (and family) that’s on rocky ground.

There is so much unuttered grief and suppressed trauma in this tale of loneliness and heartache. Watching the two young girls struggling to deal with depression in two different ways is haunting, especially when it’s clear how perceptive they are that their family is decaying rapidly.
Hama-Brown draws excellent performances from her cast, understated, powerful, and heartbreaking. These characters feel real, and I was completely invested in their eventual fate.

Water is a recurring theme throughout “Seagrass,” be it a cleansing rain, a portentous sea, a crowded swimming pool, or a quiet lake. The message Hama-Brown is trying to convey through water imagery is a bit too overt to make much of an impact, but it is only a minor criticism for a film that’s so beautiful in its understanding of sadness and family dynamics.

By: Louisa Moore