“And the Oscar goes to…” is clearly the phrase on Universal’s mind today, now that the studio has dated Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken follow-up By the Sea for the very award-friendly date of November 13.
Written, directed and produced by Jolie, the romantic drama will also find her in the lead role, alongside off-screen husband Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent, Niels Arestrup, Melvil Poupaud and Richard Bohringer. Word has it that the filmmaker was inspired by European cinema and ’60s-era theater productions for the pic, which arrives with the following synopsis:
By the Sea follows an American writer named Roland (Pitt) and his wife, Vanessa (Jolie Pitt), who arrive in a tranquil and picturesque seaside resort in 1970s France, their marriage in apparent crisis. As they spend time with fellow travelers, including young newlyweds Lea (Laurent) and François (Poupaud), and village locals Michel (Arestrup) and Patrice (Bohringer), the couple begins to come to terms with unresolved issues in their own lives.
That certainly sounds like a smaller-scale, lower-key affair than Unbroken, which was trumpeted as an Oscar contender last December before bowing to mixed reviews that gutted its chances. Jolie calls her latest “a story about a relationship derailed by loss, the tenacity of love, and the path to recovery and acceptance,” which certainly sounds intriguing, but I’ll have to see a trailer before I can really get a handle on what kind of film the A-lister is crafting here.
The November 13 release date has By the Sea going up against some big competitors in Chilean miner drama The 33, horror sequel Rings and Bruce Willis comedy Rock the Kasbah. Chances are one or more of those will move around so as not to risk splitting audiences.
