Queen at Sea review — a crushingly sad dementia drama

Queen at Sea, directed by indie US film-maker Lance Hammer, is an inexpressibly painful and sad story about dementia, the endgame of care and the decisions that need to be made when the spouse‑carer is as vulnerable as the patient. It features angry, complex, brilliant late‑career performances from Tom Courtenay and Anna Calder‑Marshall.

Set in a gloomy, wintry London, Juliette Binoche plays Amanda, a recently divorced academic who has taken a sabbatical with her teen daughter, Sara (Florence Hunt), to be closer to her mother Leslie (Calder‑Marshall) and stepfather Martin (Courtenay). One weekday morning she catches Martin and Leslie having sex and, furious, accuses him of raping Leslie after they have already received the GP’s advice that Leslie can no longer give meaningful consent.

film review, lance hammer, tom courtenay, anna calder-marshall, juliette binoche, florence hunt, dementia, spouse carer, meaningful consent, london