That train that cracks Steve takes place at a {couples} retreat that he’s attending along with his spouse Judith (Ally Maki) and daughters Stephanie (Nyha Huang Breitkreuz) and Emmy (Remy Marthaller). Judith has not too long ago misplaced her mom, and the grief has despatched her marriage into one thing of a tailspin. They each appear to be actively engaged with attempting to fix damaged bridges, however there are early indicators that this enterprise was Judith’s concept, and Steve is attending reluctantly. In the meantime, the teenage Stephanie makes mates with ladies of an analogous age whereas the youthful Emmy appears extra vulnerable to concern, fascinated by the story {that a} close by cave can enable communication with the opposite aspect. Perhaps she will be able to see grandma once more.
Don’t fear — “Seagrass” isn’t a standard ghost story, and but it additionally type of is on an emotional degree. It’s in regards to the specters of selections we make as adults relating to household and companions. It’s about that feeling that we want we knew extra in regards to the ones we will not find out about — Judith regrets each time new mates Pat (Chris Pang) and Carol ask questions on her mother that she will be able to’t reply. Grief isn’t nearly loss, it’s about remorse over each dialog we by no means had with people who find themselves gone.
As Judith and Steve push via counseling that appears to be pulling them additional aside, they begin to emotionally fracture in a method that threatens their total household. Pat and Carol turn out to be a harmful comparability in that they characterize a false splendid — the “If they’ll do it, then so can we” mentality that usually poisons precise development. Hama-Brown’s movie keenly understands the human capability to match grief and wrestle, typically minimizing and simplifying each in methods that may turn out to be tragic.
That sense of imminent tragedy makes numerous “Seagrass” play out like a slow-burn thriller, a type of timeless tales of adults who get so caught up in their very own nonsense that their kids endure, typically fairly actually. The foreboding is so resonant that even a scene whereby Emmy slowly strikes throughout a pool to a purple ball that she’s been eying feels in some way each joyous and barely terrifying on the identical time — type of like childhood.