My Sailor, My Love Is a Well-Intentioned Weepie with an Identity Crisis

If Anthony Hopkins’ Oscar-winning turn in The Father and the moderate success of last year’s A Man Called Otto prove anything, it’s that people are always down to see a curmudgeonly old man getting rehabilitated—and that there’s no need to reinvent the wheel if you know how to roll it. Despite walking well-tread but welcome ground, My Sailor, My Love never fully takes advantage of the comfort that comes with repeating familiar story beats. Wrestling between uplifting romance and harrowing family drama, the biggest drawback to Finnish director Klaus Härö’s English-language debut is that it seems undecided on what kind of narrative it wants to pursue. 

Set on Achill Island, right off of the west coast of Ireland, My Sailor, My Love focuses on elderly widower Howard (James Cosmo), his overburdened daughter Grace (Annie Walker), and Annie (Brid Brennan), the older caretaker Grace hires to bring structure into Howard’s disordered life. Already harboring a fraught relationship to each other, Howard and Grace’s ties are strained even further when he and Annie become romantically involved, bringing out old resentments from both parties. 

It’s difficult to pinpoint Howard as a character. He only ever seems to be badly tempered around his poor daughter, as shown in an early scene where he makes some neighbors laugh right before giving Grace the cold shoulder when she comes by to check on him. We never get a strong reason for Howard’s hatred towards Grace, either. When the catalyst for the rift in their relationship is finally revealed late into the film, it does little to humanize him, which weakens the film’s framing of their relationship as broken beyond repair. The only other person Howard’s cynicism extends to is Annie, the first time she’s hired. Angry that his daughter has enlisted help without his permission, he rejects the meals Annie prepares for him and sends her storming off when he offers her a large sum of money in return for her never coming by his house again. When he visits her the next day to apologize for his actions, it’s unclear what brought about his change of heart, and why she ultimately forgives him.