An elderly couple climb a steep staircase, arm in arm, one slow step at a time. It is one of the first images in Queen at Sea, and it tells you almost everything: two people who need each other completely, and a climb that is only going to get harder.
Lance Hammer’s first film since Ballast in 2008 won two Silver Bears in Berlin, and it is easy to see why. This is a tough, unsentimental and deeply humane drama about dementia, love and who gets to decide what is best for someone who can no longer speak for themselves. After opening in UK cinemas in September, it reached US cinemas on 30 October.
Queen at Sea asks the hardest question about love and care, and refuses to give you an easy answer.
Movie at a Glance
- UK release: In UK cinemas since Friday 18 September 2026 (Curzon)
- US release: Limited cinemas from Friday 30 October 2026
- US distributor: Greenwich Entertainment
- Writer and director: Lance Hammer
- Starring: Juliette Binoche, Tom Courtenay, Anna Calder-Marshall and Florence Hunt
- Runtime: 121 minutes
- Genre: Family drama
- Awards: Silver Bear Jury Prize, plus the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance for Courtenay and Calder-Marshall, Berlin 2026
Viewer Match
- Best for: Admirers of Amour, The Father and 45 Years, and anyone ready for a serious, emotionally demanding drama.
- Maybe skip if: You have recent, raw experience of caring for someone with dementia and are not ready to see it on screen.
- Mood and pace: Quiet, patient and unflinching, with moments that hit like a blow.
- Cinema or streaming? Its intimacy works anywhere, but a cinema makes it impossible to look away, which is the point.
- Spoiler level: Spoiler-free: we only describe the opening incident that sets the story in motion.
A Family at Breaking Point
Juliette Binoche plays Amanda, an academic who has moved from Newcastle to London with her teenage daughter Sara (Florence Hunt) to be near her mother, Leslie, an artist in the advanced stages of dementia. Leslie is cared for at home by her second husband, Martin. When Amanda walks in on Martin and Leslie in bed together, after he has been told that Leslie can no longer consent, she calls the police.
From that single, impulsive decision, the family loses control of its own story. Police officers, social workers and care staff step in, each doing their job, and the question of Leslie’s future moves into the hands of strangers. Hammer, who drew on input from social services and policing professionals, treats them all with fairness. There are no villains here, only people trying to do right in an impossible situation.
Two Extraordinary Performances
Binoche gives a generous, finely judged performance, often stepping back to let the story breathe around her. But the film belongs to Tom Courtenay and Anna Calder-Marshall. Courtenay, more than a decade after 45 Years, swings between heartbreaking tenderness and infuriating stubbornness as a man who cannot bear to lose the last person who needs him. Calder-Marshall barely speaks, yet every flash of recognition, confusion and fury in her face tells you who Leslie still is.
Together they create one of the most convincing portraits of a long marriage under strain that cinema has given us in years. It is brave, unselfconscious acting, and it never once feels designed to shock.
Hard to Watch, Harder to Forget
Hammer, who also edited the film, keeps everything plain and close, with nothing to tell you what to feel. That restraint is what makes it so powerful. If there is a weakness, it lies in a thinly drawn subplot around Amanda’s own life, and a late turn of events that some viewers will find a shock too far in a film that does not need one. Neither seriously dents a remarkable, essential piece of work.
A Berlin Winner Crosses the Atlantic
Queen at Sea is the most acclaimed film among the latest US limited releases, following its UK run in September. It featured in our Weekly Cinema Pack for 23 October, and if you are in the mood for another superb late-career lead performance, read our A Talent for Murder Super Review, with Helen Mirren as Patricia Highsmith.
Spoiler-Free Verdict
Queen at Sea is a shattering but compassionate film, built on three outstanding performances and a refusal to offer easy answers. It is not an easy watch, but it is an essential one.
- Performances: 9.5/10
- Direction: 8.5/10
- Screenplay: 8/10
- Score: 7/10
- Cinematography: 7.5/10
- Entertainment Value: 7/10
- Overall score: 8.5/10
Star rating: 4/5
Verdict badge: Worth Seeing
One-line verdict: Courtenay and Calder-Marshall give two of the year’s finest performances in a drama that will stay with you for days.
Watch the Official Trailer
Watch the official trailer for Lance Hammer’s Berlin prizewinner.
Who should decide what is best for someone with dementia: family, carers or the state? Share your thoughts without spoilers.