''The Seagull'' is a 2018 American historical

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by Michael Mayer with a screenplay by Stephen Karam, based on the 1896 play of the same name by

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

. The film stars

Annette Bening Annette Carol Bening (born May 29, 1958) is an American actress. She has received various accolades throughout her career spanning over four decades, including a British Academy Film Award and two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominat ...

Saoirse Ronan Saoirse Una Ronan ( , ; born 12 April 1994) is an American-born Irish actress. Primarily known for her work in period dramas since adolescence, she has received various accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations fo ...

Corey Stoll Corey Stoll (born March 14, 1976) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Congressman Peter Russo on the Netflix political thriller series ''House of Cards'' (2013–2016), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination in 2013 ...

Elisabeth Moss Elisabeth Singleton Moss (born July 24, 1982) is an American actor. She is known for her work in several television dramas, earning such accolades as two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards, which led ''Vulture'' to name her the ...

Mare Winningham A mare is an adult female horse or other equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than four y ...

Jon Tenney Jonathan Frederick Tenney (born December 16, 1961) is an American actor. He played Special Agent Fritz Howard in TNT's ''The Closer'' and continued in its spinoff '' Major Crimes''. Early life Tenney was born in Princeton, New Jersey. His mother, ...

Glenn Fleshler Glenn Fleshler (born September 5, 1968) is an American actor. On television he is noted as a recurring cast member on ''Boardwalk Empire'' who portrayed real-life bootlegger George Remus, for appearing on '' Billions'', and as Errol Childress in ...

Michael Zegen Michael Jonathan Zegen (born February 20, 1979) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the television series ''Rescue Me (American TV series), Rescue Me'' (2004–2011), ''Boardwalk Empire'' (2011–2014), and ''The Marvelous Mr ...

Billy Howle William Walter Douglas Howle (born 9 November 1989) is a British actor. His films include ''On Chesil Beach'', ''The Seagull'', and '' Outlaw King''. On television, he is known for his roles in the E4 drama '' Glue'', the BBC miniseries '' The ...

and

Brian Dennehy Brian Manion Dennehy (; July 9, 1938 – April 15, 2020) was an American actor of stage, television, and film. He won two Tony Awards, an Olivier Award, and a Golden Globe, and received six Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Dennehy had roles in ...

. Filming began in June 2015 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and the world premiere took place at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

on April 21, 2018, prior to general release on May 11, 2018, through

Sony Pictures Classics Sony Pictures Classics Inc. is an American film production and distribution company that is a division of Sony Pictures. It was founded in 1992 by former Orion Classics heads Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom. It distributes, produc ...

Synopsis

Set in Russia in the early 1900s, an aging actress named Irina Arkadina pays summer visits to her brother Pjotr Nikolayevich Sorin and her son Konstantin at a country estate. On one occasion, she brings her lover Boris Trigorin, a successful novelist. Nina, a free and innocent girl on a neighboring estate, who is in a relationship with Konstantin, falls in love with Boris.

Cast

as Irina Arkadina, an actress. Mother to Konstantin and lover of Boris. *

as Nina Zarechnaya, young actress and lover of Konstantin. *

as Boris Trigorin, a successful author and Irina's lover. *

as Masha, daughter of Polina and Shamrayev. *

as Polina, wife to Shamrayev. *

as Dr. Sergeyevich Dorn *

as Shamrayev, father of Masha and husband to Polina. *

as Mikhail Medvedenko, a young schoolteacher in love with Masha. *

as Konstantin Treplyov, a playwright in a tumultuous relationship with Nina. *

as Sorin Arkadin, Irina's aging brother.

Production

On May 13, 2015, it was announced that Michael Mayer would direct the adaptation of

's play ''

The Seagull ''The Seagull'' ( rus, Ча́йка, r=Cháyka, links=no) is a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, written in 1895 and first produced in 1896. ''The Seagull'' is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramatises t ...

'', scripted by Stephen Karam.

and

would star along with

and

. Producers are

Leslie Urdang Leslie R. Urdang (born 1956) is an American film producer and theatre executive. Education Urdang attended Forest Hills High School in New York City, where she was Chairman of ''Senior SING! 1972'' during her senior year, and at which she wa ...

Tom Hulce Thomas Edward Hulce (; born December 6, 1953) is an American actor and theater producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Academy Award-winning film ''Amadeus'' (1984), as well as the roles of Larry "Pinto" Kr ...

and Robert Salerno. Filming began on June 29, 2015, in

, with much of the film shot on location at Arrow Park in Monroe, NY.

Release

In October 2017,

acquired distribution rights to the film. The film had its world premiere at the

on April 21, 2018. It was released on May 11, 2018.

Critical response

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of , based on reviews, with an average of . The website's critical consensus reads, "The latest iteration of ''The Seagull'' does little to distinguish itself from other Chekhov adaptations but provides a pleasing showcase for its sterling cast." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 58 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

A.O. Scott Anthony Oliver Scott (born July 10, 1966) is an American journalist and cultural critic. He has been chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' since 2004, a title he shares with Manohla Dargis. Early life Scott was born on July 10, 1966 in ...

reviewing the film for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' found the cast for the film to be very well selected for their roles but the film as a whole to be disappointing stating: "Ms. Bening, Ms. Moss and Ms. Ronan in particular are superb, as you also probably didn’t need me to tell you. Each one finds the individuality that Chekhov, with uncanny sympathy and sly gallantry, imparted to his female characters. The cast is great. The play is great. But this is still a bad movie, because it has no clear or coherent idea of how to be one".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Seagull, The 2018 films 2018 drama films 2010s English-language films American drama films American films based on plays Films based on plays by Anton Chekhov Films directed by Michael Mayer Films set in Russia Films shot in New York City Films with screenplays by Stephen Karam Sony Pictures Classics films 2010s American films