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‘How Deep Is Your Love’ Review: A Mischievous Documentary Dive Into an Unfamiliar Ecosystem
Eleanor Mortimer joins a team of marine biologists in her transporting, whimsical but ultimately melancholic first feature 'How Deep Is Your Love.'
Having premiered at the True/False documentary festival before making its European bow in CPH:DOX, “How Deep Is Your Love” is a warm, approachable entry in the growing eco-documentary subgenre that should net considerable distributor interest on the strength of its plaintive environmental message and its frequently dazzling imagery — as Mortimer’s filmmaking abets the biologists’ mission to capture and chronicle an iridescent array of never-before-seen creatures down below. As they head toward its center, and survey the depths of its “abyssal zone” (over two miles below the water’s surface) via state-of-the-art cameras, the mostly British, millennial-aged team of scientists on the vessel joined by Mortimer doesn’t feign know-it-all composure in the face of such familiarity: Their wonder is palpable and easily shared as various exotic, amorphous, luridly painted organisms float into view, identified with decidedly non-academic names like “Psychedelic Elvis Worm” and “Headless Chicken Monster.” “I feel a bit like the Nicole Kidman character in ‘Paddington,'” grimaces one scientist about the essentially destructive nature of his study — and depending on your perspective, and this sense of guilt is either amplified or mitigated by the larger-scale threat posed to the seabed by mining companies intent on extracting the precious mineral resources of the deep.
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