The Light Between Oceans

The Light Between Oceans

Rating 5 out of 10

Not normally a movie I would see on opening weekend but the Hottie wanted to see it and she usually gets her way.  I like both the lead actors- Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander even though I can barely pronounce either.

I would call this the feel bad movie of the summer.  Not a bad movie but barely an uplifting moment in the 132 minutes of screen time.  The movie starts in the 1920s when an English soldier, Tom, is retuning from the war.  Having seen some terrible things some boring and alone time appeals to him so he signs up to be the lighthouse man on an otherwise deserted island.  His job is to live on the island and to manually light the lighthouse every dusk to help the ships find their way into port after dark.

After his first six month stint alone on the island when he comes back to the mainland for a short time he falls for the lovely mayors daughter who also takes a fancy to him.  She is so ready to get out of the small town she convinces Tom to marry her and take her to the island with him.  They get along well in isolation and soon begin to start a family.  Unfortunately they have two failed pregnancies that obviously take a toll on Isabel.  Not long after the second miscarriage a small row boat shows up on shore with a dead man inside and a beautiful baby girl.  Isabel talks the always follow the rules Tom into not reporting the incident and keeping the baby as their own.

Unfortunately when the baby is three when they are back in town on a short vacation they meet the childs real mother and hear the story of the how the baby and father ended up in that small boat.  The rest of the movie is how Tom and Isabel try to cope with what they have done.

My problem is not with the slow pacing.  There is not really any way you could speed up this story.  I was not impressed with the way the director (Derek Cianfrance) decided to film it.  His love of close ups is amazing.  The leads are beautiful people but I don't need to be able to count their nose hairs with the extreme close ups that seemed to make up half the movie.  The story is depressing and slow. I was mildly entertained but could not recommend it to anyone.