IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB () review
Los Angeles Times (M. Philips) review
RogerEbert.com (G. Cheshire) review
AVClub (M. D'Angelo) review
The Seagull [2018] (directed by Michael Mayer screenplay by Stephen Karam based on the stage play [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Anton Chekhov [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]) is a "small indie, arguably chamber piece" that, small though it is, DESERVES TO BE SEEN.
As in Chekhov's original, it's a spectacularly poignant story about the awkwardness of growing'up -- WHAT WOULD YOU DO if someone infatuated in you GAVE YOU the dead carcass of a once beautiful white seagull THAT HE SHOT FOR YOU ... as a token of his affection? "Well, thanks (help!) ... I guess" ;-) -- and of recognizing when one's "passed their prime" / growing old.
So the story involves a brooding young early 20-something wannabe playwright named Konstantin (played by Billy Howle) who's trying _really_ hard to create a name for himself, hence _really_ into "symbolism" (words, are not enough for him, they have to really MEAN something ;-). So he's the one who shoots that seagull for the girl he's trying to impress, WT ... did he _mean_ by doing so? ;-) or :-|.
That young girl, Nina (played by Saoirse Ronan) doesn't mind Konstantin, but SHE's really trying to _find her own way_ and hence looking for someone she considered _more experienced_ to lead her there (hence DEFINITELY NOT the still growing, still really not knowing what the heck he's doing, Konstantin).
Who impresses her more is Boris Trigonin (played by Corey Stoll) a 30 perhaps early 40-something already somewhat established playwright and yet still somewhat of a "boy-toy" (younger-than-her) lover of Konstantin's "successful actress" late 40-early 50 something mother Irina (played wonderfully by Annette Bening) who DEFINITELY doesn't know how/when to "get off the stage" (it must have been A JOY to play her role ;-).
These four, come together at the "outside of Moscow" summer home (dacha) of Irina's older brother Sorin (played by Brian Dennehy) where the story, often awkward, often funny in its painful awkwardness plays out. Sorin, for instance, unlike his younger sister Irina, knows well that he's getting older, but HE takes it to the other extreme ... basically "waiting to die" when, it's +pretty clear_ that it's "probably going to be some time" before the Lord takes him away ;-).
Then add _the priceless_ eye-rolling "help" -- Elizabeth Moss steals the show every time she's onscreen as "Masha" the _bitter_ but probably _dead-on right_ (about her place in that world at that time) daughter of the Sorin's head housekeeper Polina (played also wonderfully by Mare Winningham).
So it's an excrutiatingly painful but also often quite funny look on "growing up" / "growing old" and why SIMPLY EVERYBODY -- YOUNG, OLD, IN BETWEEN -- NEED TO KNOW CHEKHOV. Written a hundred years ago, ALL the characters in this story are relateable today.
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