A young widow investigates reports of a mythical beast in a small seaside village in this adaptation of Sarah Perry's novel, set in late 19th-century England.
is something of a slippery beast. It winds through ideas and genres, twisting and turning in ways that can be difficult to predict, and wriggles free of tidy categorizations or explanations. It’s a story about a sea creature, sort of, but it’s primarily a story about faith and progress and love and maybe half a dozen other things. But if the journey it takes can seem occasionally odd and even frustrating, it’s one guided by a steady heart toward an ultimately worthwhile destination.
begins rather ominously, with the one-two punch of a disappearance and a death. In late 19th-century London, Cora Seaborne sits by the bedside of her abusive older husband as he passes away of cancer, stubbornly refusing the newfangled medical treatments suggested by his ambitious young doctor, Luke Garrett .