‘By the Sea’ — Jolie-Pitt film not great, but not a joke

With “By the Sea,” writer-director Angelina Jolie — or Angelina Jolie Pitt, as she is listed in the credits — almost scores a real success with a very difficult type of movie.

In this her third feature as a director, Jolie once again shows a marked talent for the visual aspects of storytelling.

If she puts her camera on a street scene or on people dining in a café, there is always something that catches the eye, something that has the feeling of visual poetry.

If a character is standing on a balcony looking at something in the distance, Jolie doesn’t swoop in with her camera and show us the thing in close-up.

Sitting there drinking in the afternoon, the writer draws out the rumpled old bartender (Niels Arestrup), and we understand the writer’s charm, empathy and fundamental decency, even as we’re fascinated by the other man’s life story.

The role of the wife has lots of sides to it, but the major notes are weirdness and vulnerability.

[...] Jolie seems about as vulnerable as a steam shovel, and as the wife’s fragility becomes an important element as the film wears on, that entire area of character is lost.

A running element — the wife’s almost vampiric interest in the young couple next door, and her resentment of their happiness — makes for some interesting scenes.