“Queen at Sea,” Lance Hammer’s first feature in 18 years, is a work of shattering gentleness and harrowing ethical dilemmas. Navigating such thorny topics as consent and autonomy in the throes of dementia, the film is relentless in its exploration of impossible-to-answer questions, and uses, as its vessel, three sensational performers who make its drama both luminous and entirely devastating.
The film’s delicate opening scenes, of an aged couple ascending a public staircase arm-in-arm, are quickly fractured by stark images that yank the story into a harsh, unforgiving reality. Middle-aged, newly single professor Amanda (Juliette Binoche) brings her teenage daughter Sarah (Florence Hunt) along to a Victorian apartment in
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