Seagrass

Seagrass was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2024! It had its showing on Monday, May 13th as part of the festival, and it was the Seattle premiere of this film! You can check out my interview with director, Meredith Hama-Brown, here!

Judith (Ally Maki) and Steve (Luke Roberts) are going through something. Judith is a Japanese Canadian, and Steve is “White Canadian”, and being an interracial couple comes with a lot of difficulties other couples never have to face or talk about. But they are now working on couples therapy. The one they picked is actually many days long and a vacation spot, with other couples. A nice destination to air out their issues and work together to find their love again. In a beautiful area!

And this is one that is for the whole family. They have two kids (Remy Marthaller, Nyha Huang Breitkreuz), who also have their own problems growing up, being of mixed ethnicities, and their identity. But on this vacation is an area with a lot of kids, and kids activities, so they have plenty to do and fun to be had, while their parents are having a bit less fun.

The catalyst for this story is that Judith’s mom died recently, and Judith has been in a funk ever sense. Hopefully they can work on their issues. Hopefully the last decade wasn’t a waste. Or was it?

Also starring Sarah Gadon and Chris Pang, as another Asian/White couple at the resort, with their genders swapped from our two leads. Although notably, the man is Chinese Canadian, not Japanese.

Scenic cool cave shot but don’t worry, the cave MATTERS. Seagrass is a film that is one step away from being a thriller, purely for tense moments in their drama. Honestly, I wondered if this might turn into a murder story. Or a ghost story. Or something. I was a bit scared at times, as they really ramped certain events at the end. And the camera work. The camera really liked to linger, or do some far away shots, and it had me wondering if something was going to pop out and the genre was going to switch.

I think that can all be attributed to the wonderful acting and script for this story. While its not as tense as films that make you clench early on and never let go, it gives subtle hints of a potential ending disaster, and you never know if this is going to be the time for a boiling over point.

Maki does a lot of great work here specifically. Roberts is a good standard dull white guy, who isn’t unable to understand view points outside of his own. But Maki has to put in the full range here. And she is wonderful for it.

I didn’t know exactly where Seagrass was going with its story by the end, but it chose a very nice path, with some powerful final words. I am also glad that the 1994 Vancouver Hockey riots were a part of the story as well. Always important to include those into movies, if at all possible.

3 out of 4.