Rating: 
Summary: A Beautiful Masterpiece
Review: The beauty of the Cornwall Coast is only matched by the beauty of Rachel Weisz and Vincent Perez. Is there another actor who can convey so much through his eyes? This is also a story of how unkindly those who are considered a bit different can be treated. It is a great love story and I am so glad I own it so I can watch it agin.I have been to Cornwall and the power of the sea is there. Candace Serviss
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, yet haunting story of star-crossed lovers.
Review: The scenery in magnificent. The sound track by John Barry is so wonderful, you'll rush out to purchase it (like I did). The story captures you and soon you feel the ache of love and loss like the main characters. If you liked the movies based on Jane Austen, you like this movie, but the theme is a little darker. Get your kleenex box out when you watch it. Great girl movie!!!
Rating: 
Summary: A romance with a lot of possibilities
Review: The story idea in "Swept from the Sea" is a very good one. I also liked the fact that there is actually a film out there where we didn't have to witness vivid sex scenes and endure filthy language. I thought that the actors were all very good. However, if I had written the story, I would have spent more time dwelling on Amy and Yanko first realizing how deep their feelings were. I thought that part moved too fast. The "eyes meeting" or "sparks flying from just a little touch" parts were too few and far between. But, overall I would say it was good. The music is absolutely beautiful! John Barry is a genious in bringing on emotion with music. One of my all time favorite movie scores is from "Somewhere in Time", which he also composed. The "Swept from the Sea" soundtrack is now another of my favorites.
Rating:
Summary: Great movie but some supplies are needed!
Review: This beautiful story will touch your heart. Supplies are needed though! Here is the Swept From The Sea supply list: popcorn (naturally) hot chocolate (nice and warm with marshmallows!) kleenex (always carry kleenex! Just in case!) nice, warm blanket (to cuddle up in) and last but not least ice cream! (always eat during depressing parts! It works!) Enjoy your movie experience! Sniff! Sniff!
Rating:
Summary: Piscean, Astrological and Unique
Review: This film is extremely Piscean. Powerful! Racheal Weisz is herself a Pisces, born on the same day as I. March 7th! When I bought this film without even seeing it first I knew intuitively I had found a pearl just by the plot and by the Actress from "the mummy". Everything in this film is Piscean and "fishy". Some parts remind meof Jesus as someone else mentioned on this review page. This is the most intense, romantic movie I have ever seen in my whole life. Not to mention gorgeous and beautiful! Rachel and Vincent are perfectly cast together! Vincent's innocent smiles and Russian accents. Rachel's mysterious, highly independent and sensitive nature is astounding for the movie. I love the scene where she and Vincent are making love for the first time, and in water in a cave, for her first time. His gentleness and her innocence are so powerful and erotic. This film is so mature and strong, yet very poignant in its story. Some parts are very tragical and difficult to watch. Rachel and Vincent were excellent in making me weep!
Rating:
Summary: A Heart-felt spirituality
Review: This film, I trust, will continue to draw enthusiasts for generations (not just per us women). It explores the classic, magnetic theme of the Divine Romance, the eternal union of Lover and Beloved, that neither religious hypocrisy nor anything else may destroy. To appreciate just how creative and perceptive the screenwriting and directing are, you might read, for contrast, the original short story, "Amy Foster," by the great writer, Joseph Conrad. His rendition certainly is gripping, yet leaves me with a subdued, unfulfilling aftertaste. Mr. Conrad left the love-relationship, and story-ending, ambiguous. At the end, doubts are raised, unresolved, by the author: was the heroine actually capable of loving the hero, or perhaps she was too simple-minded even to remember his existence. The film version is weighted, from the start, in favor of the girl, Amy, as one who truly loves the foreigner. It seems the authentic angle, for me. In opting for an eternal love, the film elevates to spiritual levels, what was an intriguing, yet basically, mundane short story. It's stirring. Other liberties are taken with the original tale, and justified by the awesome results: the doctor and Amy's parents are given background and conflict. The latter heightens the drama in which the young lovers are embroiled. As in Mr. Conrad's version, the hero, Yanko, is a warm, affectionate, open, vulnerable being. In spiritual terms, he would embody the sacred wandering "Fool" exhibiting crazy wisdom, that befuddles, frightens, the townspeople. Focusing on one specific tradition, Christianity, the film speaks about, and to, all religions. It cannot be coincidental that there is overt Christian-oriented symbolism: When the shipwrecked foreigner approaches the farmhouse window, he resembles in long hair, sweet silent demeanor, a traditional representation of Christ. Later, in the shed, the girl serves him humbly, washes his feet, his cheeks. Her actions are a composite, evoking accounts of women-followers of Christ, one wiping his feet with her tears and hair, or another, his face (the Shroud of Turin origin). Who saves whom, is the underlying question throughout the story. In the above barn scene, in a potent, sacramental role, Amy asks him, "Can you eat this bread?" That touched me. She is offering him the experience of nourishing communion. Later, the hero feels his only hope, in a strange land, is to meet again "the girl who fed him bread." Ironically, his inner needs are revealed by outer suffering. Driven by outer thirst, at the beginning of, and afterwards in, the film, the hero's anguish reflects a classic spiritual scenario, the request for a cup of water. Yanko also acts as a saviour to his Beloved. Yanko's goal is to deliver her from the claustrophobic world in which she's been trapped. For her sake, he challenges deadly employees and parents and vicious vandals. The couple's humanness, however, threatens their rescuing ability. Going deeper, the film overall, via the lovers' crises, seems to project what I see as compelling truth: the infinite, saving Spirit of Divine Love. The latter is there to be recognized by the two. If they let it, it will transcend the pair's imperfect, frail efforts to understand, protect, each other,and unite them for eternity, in their bond of devotion. The story encourages us, whatever our religion, to develop empathy. When Amy speaks of the sea as a "repository of hearts" waiting to be "reborn," the hero sputters, "But this is not Christian?" Nevertheless, he then instinctively embraces her. He realizes here that his acceptance of her purity, unconditional love, is not the rejection, but the very blossoming of his Christian faith. He does not forget his religion. He has no qualms about plans to marry inside the village church, the exterior of which was the site, where service-goers had spurned him. The emphasis for the two seems ever to be on their developing fidelity to the mystical heart of love. The actors are superb, each one expressing sensitivity in nuanced ways. Rachel Weisz, the Amy character, via several close-ups, reminds me of photos of a pre-Kennedy, young-adult Jackie Bouvier. There's a simple quiet dignity and refinement to her character, to her movements. This is strikingly at odds with the coarseness of her attire, parents, employers, villagers, and jagged-rock landscape. Ian McKellen mesmerizes. He sometimes seems to step out of character, and confide, once with pain, once in triumph, later in amusement, about his reality of being different. Vincent Perez radiates compassion, and his performance is heartwrenching and formidable. Watching, and re-playing, Swept From The Sea, many might find themselves, indeed, swept by emotions, transcendent, effervescent. Memorable. Reviewer: Cory Giacobbe
Rating:
Summary: moved my entire soul
Review: This is one of my favorite films ever. Swept From The Sea is a beautiful but sad story about two tragic lovers. The love they have for one another goes deeper than the sea. A Russian man called Yanko, the only living survivor of a ship that had been swallowed by the sea while on route to America to start a new life, washes to the shores of Cornwall England. The ignorance of the people who find him and how they treat him is sad, however, he is treated kindly by Amy Foster. She is a quiet and kind girl who helps Yanko who was locked away in a shed by her employer. One of the best scenes in the movie is when she sneaks out and brings the scared Yanko a blaket, food, water and a towel. She begins to wash his hands, feet and face. The look of such gratitude... I can't describe the beauty of that scene... Yanko is so touched by this woman's kindness it brings him to tears. That scene was so real and so moving. Amy Foster is an outcast because she is quiet and shy and Yanko is an outcast because he's from another part of the world. The time that the film is set in has alot to do with the ignorance of the people. Very few accepted Amy and Yanko. This movie is so wonderful and a MUST SEE for everyone. I don't want to say more to give it away. Make sure you have a box of KLEENEX!
CHEERS!
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and at the same time sad...
Review: This is one of my favorite films ever. Swept From The Sea is a beautiful but sad story about two tragic lovers. The love they have for one another goes deeper than the sea. A Russian man called Yanko, the only living survivor of a ship that had been swallowed by the sea while on route to America to start a new life, washes to the shores of Cornwall England. The ignorance of the people who find him and how they treat him is sad, however, he is treated kindly by Amy Foster. She is a quiet and kind girl who helps Yanko who was locked away in a shed by her employer. One of the best scenes in the movie is when she sneaks out and brings the scared Yanko a blaket, food, water and a towel. She begins to wash his hands, feet and face. The look of such gratitude... I can't describe the beauty of that scene... Yanko is so touched by this woman's kindness it brings him to tears. That scene was so real and so moving. Amy Foster is an outcast because she is quiet and shy and Yanko is an outcast because he's from another part of the world. The time that the film is set in has alot to do with the ignorance of the people. Very few accepted Amy and Yanko. This movie is so wonderful and a MUST SEE for everyone. I don't want to say more to give it away. Make sure you have a box of KLEENEX!
CHEERS!
Rating:
Summary: moved my entire soul
Review: This is one of those love stories that destroys hearts. Not in a bad way, but melts them like ice. This story reminds me a lot of Titanic. Titanic has a wonderful story, as does Braveheart. I rate this movie along with Titanic and Braveheart. Braveheart has a gorgeous love story. Titanic does too. Swept From The Sea is its own! It is so unique! I don't know what else to say, but one must see it to understand how much I love it. It is a movie that will be deeply buried within my mind. A jewel. So tender and kind!
BRILLIANT!
Rating:
Summary: A Heart Cast Upon the Sea
Review: This magnificent film based on Joseph Conrad's 'Amy Foster' is filled with the timeless grace of classic literature. The Cornwall English coast has never been so beautifully photographed as it is here in this story of two hearts saving each other from a life of loneliness. Rachel Weisz uses her open and beautiful face to marvelous effect, conveying the accumulated hurt and resolve of a girl who has lived her entire life deprived of love. Her father resents her for the marriage her arrival into the world forced him into and her mother witholds her love because of a much deeper shame Amy is unaware of. Amy counters their unkindness with a silence that seems strange to those around her and casts her heart upon the sea, waiting for it to be reborn. When the sole survivor of a shipwreck washes ashore and is treated in the same manner as Amy because he is Russian and can not communicate with those around him their hearts connect instantly, a deeply moving yet simple act of human kindness when she washes his feet and offers him bread never to be forgotten, setting the tone for the entire film. Vincent Perez gives a perfect performance as the Russia stranger who is lost and helpless in a foreign land. It is as if the sea Amy so dearly loves has felt her hurt and brought her love. Ian McKellan and Kathy Bates lend depth to this tender and tragic tale revolving around the sea. It will leave you with the feeling you get upon finishing a classic book, knowing it will linger long afterward in your heart and mind. This is a deeply romantic film, spare and beautiful, laced with tenderness and love. Do not, under any circumstances, miss this fine film....
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