GWEN (Trine Dyrholm) feels like it is always 1999. She sees a face in the mirror that is unfamiliar and her partner is unrecognisable to her despite being together every day. Joe (Celyn Jones) feels like his life is coming undone and his partner, Sarah, fears all will be forgotten. A compelling and emotionally charged drama, The Almond and the Seahorse chronicles the impact of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) on sufferers and their relatives.
Tracking the emotional afterburn of a traumatic event, the narrative offers a touching, poignant and deeply rich story of humility and dedication. It asks the question, what happens when you are ambushed by time as your memories begin to delete and relationships begin to disintegrate?
Co-directed by Celyn Jones and Tom Stern and written by Jones and Kaite O’Reilly, based on O’Reilly’s 2008 stage play of the same name, The Almond and the Seahorse also stars Australia’s own Rebel Wilson along with Meera Syal and Charlotte Gainsbourg in a supporting role.
Filmed across Liverpool and North Wales, this humble drama maps the human condition with a heart rendering honesty.
The “Senior Year” star portrays an archeologist who grapples with complications stemming from her husband’s (Celyn Jones) traumatic brain injury in IFC Films’ “The Almond and the Seahorse,” out December 16. Charlotte Gainsbourg also plays an architect who has fallen out of love with her partner (Trine Dyrholm) due to a similar injury.
“What happens when you’re ambushed by time? An archaeologist and an architect fight to re-imagine a future after traumatic brain injury leaves them adrift from the people they love,” the official synopsis reads. “Love is the only thing that keeps them all going but something has changed.”
The film is co-directed by Celyn Jones and Tom Stern, with a script co-written by Jones and Katie O’Reilly. The title refers to the parts of the brain that “lay down new memories and hold on to old ones,” per IFC.
Wilson credited “The Almond and the Seahorse” with allowing her to show off her Judi Dench-inspired approach to acting. “When I started acting over two decades ago, I started as a serious actress,” Wilson told People magazine. “So I really wanted to be the next Dame Judi Dench and was performing on stage doing classics like Shakespeare and Marlowe. It was only in 2003 when I won a scholarship from Nicole Kidman that I got to ‘specialize’ in comedy and went to comedy school in New York.”
Wilson continued,”So to now do ‘The Almond and the Seahorse’ felt like a return to what I was doing right at the start of my career. I know it’s very different [compared] to the glossy Hollywood comedies I’ve been doing in the past decade, but I had to dust off my serious acting chops for this role and I’m so proud of the film and the performances in it!”
Up next, Wilson is set to star in the comedy “Rocking the Boat,” about four high school friends looking to capture their youth on a ’90s-themed cruise featuring their former boy band crushes. Leslie Mann co-stars. Wilson additionally will lead “K-Pop: Lost in America” opposite “Riverdale” breakout Charles Melton, about a Korean pop band that mistakenly travels to Waco, Texas ahead of their scheduled Madison Square Garden performance in New York City.
“The Almond and the Seahorse” premieres in select theaters and will be available to rent on AppleTV+ and Prime Video starting December 16.
