DreamWorks Pictures
Morality and romance, beginnings and ends. Light in the darkness. These are themes that are quite old, but that’s no reason not to look at them again. Sometimes people meet on movie sets and have such chemistry that they hook up in real life. Natalie Portman and the ballet guy from Black Swan, or her with Anakin Skywalker from the Star Wars prequels, or her (allegedly) with Scarlett Johansson from The Other Boleyn Girl, or her ex-husband Ryan Reynolds with Blake Lively from the Green Lantern mess. It happens, and sometimes you see it on the screen.
Sometimes the movie’s not bad either.
The Light Between Oceans comes from director Derek Cianfrance and is based on the novel of the same name. Michael Fassbender stars as Tom Sherbourne, a war veteran of World War I who fought for his country and is back in Australia. His accent is awful, because I didn’t realize he was supposed to be from Australia until after the movie. Damaged and traumatized, Tom gets a job as the keeper of a lighthouse on a lonely island. This island is called “Janus” island after the Roman god of stuff like changes and he had two faces. It’s not a real island so the theme is kind of over baked.
Tom meets young Isabel (Alicia Vikander with an equally poor accent) and is drawn to her yet doesn’t want to be around people. Isabel has lost her brothers in the war and has few marriage prospects in their town, so she pursues Tom aggressively, especially for the time period. After a few romantic letters, they get married and move to the island, all alone. Their marriage is instantly connective and meaningful.
This is the movie bringing you up, and predictably it’s about to bring you down. Isabel has two miscarriages and despairs of ever having children. But then after a storm, the couple finds a boat washed ashore with a dead man and a baby girl. Against Tom’s initial moral quandary, Isabel convinces him to keep the child as their own. And they start to raise the very adorable child they name Lucy.
But it goes bad again when in town Tom discovers a woman, Hannah (Rachel Weisz), who lost her husband and child at sea. So of course Tom knows the truth but can’t do anything just yet. Well he can, but he doesn’t. The movie continues on, showing Lucy as an exceptionally cute and charming toddler (Florence Chery, a great performance from a child). They bond but it’s complicated, as they know the child isn’t really theirs.
Several decisions are made and changed, moral problems arise and are resolved in often heartbreaking ways. Over and over the movie punishes you for any feelings of empathy. These aren’t monsters, but they are in a terrible place. Much of the movie is on the romance between Isabel and Tom, and it certainly is effective (especially considering it’s how the two actors began dating in real life). But it’s just window dressing to the moral quandaries that drive the plot.
A lot of tears and a lot of hardships. I didn’t enjoy it, but I can see that it may work better for some people. Often it dragged, but usually it flowed well. The acting of the two leads is tremendous, as to be expected. These are two very talented actors, elevating clichéd material to be very painful and heart wrenching.
There are a lot of beautiful shots in the movie, and I must give props to the cinematography. That and the acting really are the great things here, the story is only just okay. The questions of morality are interesting but the motivations are muddled. The characters are directed in such a way that silence is omnipresent, so it’s difficult to pull it together.
Overall it’s a better than average movie, but the point is the performances. If you see it, get ready to feel terrible.
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