How Deep Is Your Love Review
5000 feet below the sea’s surface lives a whole host of beautiful, bizarre beings, many of which have never been seen by human eyes before. Unfortunately, lying right underneath them are a phalanx of nodules which can be mined for energy and profit by big corporations, ruining the very specific ecosystems of these creatures.
There’s a law that states that companies must fund scientific research into what could be lost before they start mining, and it’s on one of these expeditions that director Eleanor Mortimer joins a group of enthusiastic marine biologists. She charts her experiences in How Deep Is Your Love.
The headline act of Mortimer’s mesmeric documentary is obviously the sea creatures themselves, which truly do look as if they come from another planet. A phosphorescent, squidgy, shiny, rainbow coloured swirl of life, much of the film is dedicated to both watching them do their thing along the sea bed, and watching the awed scientists watch them. In a movie that errs towards the melancholic, the genuine love and enthusiasm of these young scientists for the creatures they’re studying is a continual source of uplift. And while we don’t see her on screen, you can tell from the companionable way they address her camera that Mortimer bonded with them when they were at sea together. That intimacy really adds to the film’s warmly dreamlike atmosphere; in parts, it feels like a 3am heart-to-heart with an old friend over hot chocolates.
Though the enthusiasm of the crew is lovely, it’s also complicated, like a lot of aspects in this documentary. For one thing, whatever they bring up to the surface, to preserve for future generations of humans to learn about, dies. It’s often quite distressing to watch the big claw prowl along the sea bed, choosing its prey. One of the scientists comments guiltily that he feels like Nicole Kidman’s villainous character in Paddington, “I want that creature in a jar on my desk!”.
Another queasy truth is that voyages like the ones in How Deep Is Your Love are funded by the companies who want to rip up the sea bed. As such, the crew are briefly protested by Greenpeace, much to their bemusement, as they consider themselves the good guys (Mortimer is asleep when this happens, and relies on their footage to fill in the blanks).
This is a political film by its essence, but it isn’t a polemic – Mortimer tells us the information and lets it sit with us as we watch these underwater aliens do their thing. “Isn’t it strange that we have more detailed maps of the moon than the deep sea regions of earth?” she asks, in her sometimes distractingly ASMR-adjacent narration. Considering the damage that follows when humans attempt to explore down there, perhaps that’s for the best. However transfixing and fascinating it is, after watching How Deep Is Your Love, it’s very possible to wish that everyone – mining companies, scientists, and maybe even filmmakers – would just leave well enough alone.
★★★★
