THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS
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There’s a challenging central premise here that, if accepted, makes The Light Between Oceans one of the more satisfying dramatic love stories of the year. If you can’t make the leap, you’ll sum up much of what happens with one dismissive shrug of the shoulder.
There’s a challenging central premise here that, if accepted, makes The Light Between Oceans one of the more satisfying dramatic love stories of the year. If you can’t make the leap, you’ll sum up much of what happens with one dismissive shrug of the shoulder.
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Set in the early 1900’s, a remote West Australian light house needs a light house keeper, and the keeper needs a wife. The stars align and socially reticent Tom (Michael Fassbender – The Counselor) takes his new partner Isabel (Alica Vikander – The Danish Girl) to live on a rock. It’s all love and happiness until, one dark and stormy night, Isabel has a miscarriage and plunges into despair. However the Gods soon provide by way of an infant that, Moses-like, washes up on their shore. Love and happiness returns as they care for the girl as if she was their own, even after the couple learn that the child’s true mother is alive and grieving back in the village. The awful truth of their ongoing deception plunges Tom into despair.
Based on M.L. Stedman’s popular novel, The Light Between Oceans is given a full, melodramatic treatment by writer / director Derek Cianfrance, best known for Blue Valentine and Place Beyond The Pines. Anchored by intelligent performances (the always excellent Rachel Weisz - Youth – appears as the child’s mother), the elegance of the film is eventually undone by the emotional manipulation brought to bear on the narrative. Hearty themes of betrayal, sacrifice and loss build a fine moral tale, but the story’s central conceit – kidnapping – is too big a hurdle to slide around with any comfort. Were this to end on a darker note (more Thomas Hardy than Nicholas Sparks), it might be easier to swallow. But it doesn’t, and it isn’t.
Ultimately, The Light Between Oceans is the kind of old fashioned saga that tries to earn our respect through a swirl of mood and music, costume and scenery instead of doing the work and earning it the old fashioned way, through a complicated swirl of emotion.
// COLIN FRASER
Previewed at Sony Theatre, Sydney, on 12 October 2016.
Based on M.L. Stedman’s popular novel, The Light Between Oceans is given a full, melodramatic treatment by writer / director Derek Cianfrance, best known for Blue Valentine and Place Beyond The Pines. Anchored by intelligent performances (the always excellent Rachel Weisz - Youth – appears as the child’s mother), the elegance of the film is eventually undone by the emotional manipulation brought to bear on the narrative. Hearty themes of betrayal, sacrifice and loss build a fine moral tale, but the story’s central conceit – kidnapping – is too big a hurdle to slide around with any comfort. Were this to end on a darker note (more Thomas Hardy than Nicholas Sparks), it might be easier to swallow. But it doesn’t, and it isn’t.
Ultimately, The Light Between Oceans is the kind of old fashioned saga that tries to earn our respect through a swirl of mood and music, costume and scenery instead of doing the work and earning it the old fashioned way, through a complicated swirl of emotion.
// COLIN FRASER
Previewed at Sony Theatre, Sydney, on 12 October 2016.
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STARRING
Michael Fassbender
Alicia Vikander
Rachel Weisz
DIRECTOR
Derek Cianfrance
SCREENWRITER
Derek Cianfrance
COUNTRY
UK / NZ / USA
CLASSIFICATION
M
RUNTIME
133 minutes
AUSTRALIAN
RELEASE DATE
November 1, 2016
Michael Fassbender
Alicia Vikander
Rachel Weisz
DIRECTOR
Derek Cianfrance
SCREENWRITER
Derek Cianfrance
COUNTRY
UK / NZ / USA
CLASSIFICATION
M
RUNTIME
133 minutes
AUSTRALIAN
RELEASE DATE
November 1, 2016
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