- Actors: Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Rachel Weisz, Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson
- Director: Derek Cianfrance
- Film Format: AC-3, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
- Language: English (DTS-HD High Res Audio), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
- Subtitles: French, Spanish, English
- Dubbed: French, Spanish
- Region: Region A/1
- Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
- Rated: PG-13
- Studio: Touchstone Home Entertainment
- Release Date: January 24, 2017
- Run Time: 133 minutes
Derek Cianfrance
(Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond the Pines) has established himself as a director
capable of handling heavy drama without allowing it to devolve into the
emotional manipulation of melodrama, so he seemed the perfect choice to direct a
film adaptation of M.L. Stedman’s novel full of coincidence and heavy emotions.
While Cianfrance continues to prove his capabilities as an actor’s director,
even he is incapable of saving the film from drowning in its own sorrow.
Beautifully shot and expertly acted, The
Light Between Oceans still retains a narrative that often feels emotionally
manipulative through its many contrivances.
The film
introduces the romance at the center of the narrative rather quickly, as war
veteran Tom Sherbourne (Michael Fassbender) takes a temporary job as the keeper
of a lighthouse on a remote island off the coast of Australia. In his visits to the
mainland, Tom encounters a young woman named Isabel (Alicia Vikander) and
begins to woo her, though she is often more of an initiator in the romance than
he is. Their relationship develops over the course of a few brief visits and a
couple of letters, and before long they are married and sharing each other’s
company in the solitude of the lighthouse island. It isn’t so much that their relationship
feels rushed, but rather that the lengthy film feels off-balanced by the amount
of sadness which follows these early sequences of romance.
At first, all is
well for Isabel and Tom, who begin to build a life together on the island. When
they attempt to start a family, this happiness quickly turns to heartache.
After the devastation of two miscarriages, Isabel begins to lose the light that
she had when first falling in love with Tom, but this all changes when a drifting
lifeboat brings an infant ashore. As the man with the child is already
deceased, Tom and Isabel make the decision to raise the infant as their own,
pretending she is the result of one of Isabel’s failed pregnancies.
This begins the
second happy portion of the narrative, though it is tinged with the truth about
their deceit. When Tom investigates and discovers that the mother (Rachel
Weisz) of their adopted child is still alive and mourning the loss of her
husband and infant, he is overcome with guilt. Stuck between doing what he
knows is right and what will make his wife happy, Tom is put in an impossible
position. This weighs down the remainder of the film, as the path to an
inevitable resolution is dragged out to a 133-minute run time.
There is a lot
that works within The Light Between
Oceans, though it feels buried in a film that feels at least 20-minutes too
long. Fassbender and Vikander have a natural chemistry, which may to do with
the fact that they were actually dating. And the fact that they were actually
dating may have something to do with the fact that Cianfrance had them live
together for their six weeks on set. No matter how compelling the performances,
however, there simply isn’t enough for the actors to do within the narrative.
The misery ends up being dragged out just to pad the narrative, and that’s when
Cianfrance’s film begins to feel indulgent.
The Blu-ray
release of The Light Between Oceans
highlights many of the film’s assets, including its spectacular photography of
magnificent locations. It is a film that looks great, even when the drama
doesn’t always match that excellence, making the high definition presentation a
worthwhile upgrade. There are only three special features on the disc itself,
but at least two of them are worthwhile. The highlight of the extras is a
commentary track with Cianfrance and his former Film Studies professor, Phil
Solomon. “Bringing The Light to Life” is a making-of featurette that is just
over 15-minutes long and covers nearly all of the crucial elements of the
filmmaking process. Even though this includes discussion of the location
choices, “Lighthouse Keeper” is an additional featurette that focuses on the
location of the lighthouse and its unique history.
Entertainment Value:
6.5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 7.5/10
Historical
Significance: 6/10
Special Features: 7/10
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