By the Sea (15) 122 mins. Starring Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie Pitt, Melanie Laurent, Melvil Poupaud and Niels Arestrup.

ACHINGLY cool style casts a disdainful glance at substance in Angelina Jolie Pitt’s languorous examination of marital discord set in a 1970s resort in the south of France.

The vicarious thrill of observing one of the world’s most famous celebrity couples blur reality for their art as a husband and wife in turmoil, quickly evaporates when it becomes evident that the script and a robust plot are the least of the film’s trifling concerns.

The period detail is impeccable, from the sleek convertible that delivers the couple to their sun-baked Mediterranean idyll to the pristine designer luggage that accommodates the numerous costume changes that herald each overwrought scene.

Tears flow freely, sending dark rivulets of non-waterproof mascara down Jolie Pitt’s cheeks as she shields her eyes from the midday sun behind large Yves Saint Laurent glasses.

When Pitt’s long-suffering spouse quietly informs one of the French locals, “She’s not so easy to love,” we share his pain. Every frame is speckled with woe.

By The Sea opens with New York author Roland (Brad Pitt) and his wife Vanessa (Angelina Jolie Pitt) arriving at a hotel, where he hopes the sea air will unclog his writer’s block. Tension between the couple is palpable.

The air of melancholy momentarily lifts when newlyweds Francois (Melvil Poupaud) and Lea (Melanie Laurent) check in to an adjacent suite and Vanessa discovers a hole in the wall that allows her to spy on the new arrivals, who hop into bed with frenzied regularity.

At first, this voyeurism seems to stoke the smouldering embers of Vanessa and Roland’s dormant desire.

By The Sea is undone by an plodding, impotent script that struggles to verbalise the main couple’s turmoil.

“I like belonging to something, someone,” remarks Vanessa in one of the film’s more lucid moments.

When the big reveal finally comes – the reason for the wife’s suffering – it’s an anguished cry in the dark that fails to curry our sympathy.