Meandering and overlong in ways that will test the patience of even die-hard Brangelina fans, the film ultimately feels too dramatically reductive and obvious to pull off its desired cocktail of Albee and Antonioni, limiting its appeal primarily to those viewers who can get drunk on visual pleasure alone.

If “By the Sea” weren’t so aggressively humorless, it might almost qualify as camp, so unsuccessful is its pursuit of weighty drama. Unintentional laughs are hard to come by here; instead, there are yawns aplenty.

This languid piece of would-be art cinema will prove once again that even the biggest names in the world won't draw an audience to something that, in and of itself, has no reason for being.

Pitt is fantastic as Roland. From frame one, the actor is a convincing sad sack. Jolie Pitt has the more challenging role of the two. It’s an ego-less performance, a deeply unlikable character Jolie Pitt fully embraces.

By the Sea is a refreshingly honest, sexy, and clever romance.