Vincent Perez, Rachel Weisz
The title promises a tale of romantic grandeur even as it strikes a false note. How often is anything swept from the sea? It makes me think of Poseidon dusting off the waves with a whisk broom.
Weisz plays a strange, nature-loving servant girl in a town along the wild Cornish coast at the turn of the century. Perez, a Ukrainian trying to get across the Atlantic to America, is shipwrecked and, because of his unrecognizable language and Michael Bolton hair, mistaken for a madman. Despite the disapproving eyes of the locals, the two become lovers. Although the movie is based on a short story by Joseph Conrad, this couple seems like a dumbed-down Catherine and Heath-cliff. Weisz, at least, wears period dresses that show off her long neck, which is alabaster-white and perfectly formed. But that's scarcely a reason to see this. (PG-13)
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