SummaryOn a remote Australian island in the years following World War I, lighthouse keeper Tom Sherbourne (Michael Fassbender) and his wife, Isabel (Alicia Vikander), discover a boat washed ashore carrying a dead man and a two-month old baby. Rescuing the infant, they make the decision to raise her as their own but the consequences of their cho...
SummaryOn a remote Australian island in the years following World War I, lighthouse keeper Tom Sherbourne (Michael Fassbender) and his wife, Isabel (Alicia Vikander), discover a boat washed ashore carrying a dead man and a two-month old baby. Rescuing the infant, they make the decision to raise her as their own but the consequences of their cho...
A mesmerizing, engrossing and beautifully made cinematic experience, rare as a pink unicorn, that enchants for more than two hours and makes you wish for at least one hour more.
One of the most beautiful and tragic film I've ever seen. The starring skills of Alicia Vikander are perfectly appropriate. I wanted to watch this film after I've seen "The Danish Girl", where Alicia was just a brilliant actress.
It’s a romance novel, a romantic fable, brought to life by a pretty good cast that cannot make it more than is, that cannot give it more meaning and make it less frustrating than novelist M.L. Stedman intended.
The Light Between Oceans winds up taking one too many self-serious twists and turns. The film earns its darkness, but it might have been even more affecting if it didn’t shrink from the light.
The first-rate cast — right down to that infant, who displays Streep-like instincts for the camera — toils mightily. But sadly, they’re trapped in what becomes a sort of A-list Nicholas Sparks melodrama Down Under.
I will go ahead and give this one a 10. I have not seen a TRUE drama to this extent in a long time. I was at tears at points in this movie because the dramatic moments would build and you could not believe the trouble and heart felt problems this couple falls into. It could easily win for best drama at the Oscars. Michael Fassbender will be up for best actor for The Light Between Two Oceans and is an amazing actor who brings dynamic depth to the character Tom Sherbourne.
a sculpture chiseled for the cast..
The Light Between Oceans
The Light Between Oceans is a character driven romantic drama about a couple who is ready to take immoral steps in their lives in order to seek happiness. After a thundering adaptation in "Blue Valentine", Cianfrance had an enormous amount of expectations to fill in, which it fails to do so, despite of making a decent feature. Ticking for more than two hours, such overlong features that too of this genre can milk its way out and offer mere dry emotions to the audience. But packed with finely edited screenplay; except for the first act, the feature is utterly gripping and compelling with layered concept emitting through each character's well thought out perspective. Meddling with such fictitious premise, it leads the feature on such a borderline edge where people's opinion arguably may differ. But this is where Cianfrance; the screenwriter and director, comes in and flaunts his experience of brilliant execution skills. There are moments in here which might be chalky around the edges due to inedible conversations and cheesy manipulative dialogues, but such sequences are confronted well enough by the cast and pulls them off with conviction. The background score is decent along with costume designing but the cinematography steals the show in here with some jaw dropping visuals and live locations which is beautifully shot in here. As mentioned, Fassbender is achingly good and Vikander's complex show-stealing act chills down the spine along with Weisz's surrendered support that binds all of it in and actually helps elevate the feature. Stellar performances, stunning visuals and morally complex and heartbreaking tale are the high points of the feature. The Light Between Oceans is a sculpture chiseled for the cast to flaunt their finesse on screen with a wide range offered to them by the smarter adaptation.
The lead actors, Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander are beautiful, not only physically but in their acting ability. The photography of the scenery by Adam Arkapaw, whether it be the New Zealand country or Tasmania or the ocean waves breaking on shore or the skies above them, are beautiful and in some scenes breathtaking. The music by Alexandre Desplat, never disturbs what is taking place on the screen and only underscores it. The direction by Derek Cianfance, who also wrote the screenplay based on a book by M. L. Stedman's, on the surface says what a tearjerker it is, not to forget so many scenes of actors crying, but he never gets to what should be a major payoff of "The Light Between Oceans".
In many ways this film reminded me of old melodramas starring Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins or Mary Astor. There is the pregnant woman having two miscarriages, a baby showing up in a rowboat with her dead father at an isolated lighthouse island, the couple decide to keep her, the real mother showing up 5 years later and tears, plenty of tears. Where the directors back then were accused of manipulating the audience and getting them to cry experiencing, in some cases, a catharsis, director/screenwriter Cianfance here only skims the surface of what is happening.
As beautiful as the scenes of the country, water, sun, moon, lighthouse island, the town across the way are, there are too many of each making the movie last 132 minutes resulting in a rushed ending cutting off the emotions of the audience. There are too many voice-overs, too many letters spoken, distracting from the feelings of the actors.
There is much to like about "The Light Between Oceans"--see the first paragraph--but a lot more could have been achieved with a little more effort.
Very inappropriate film in terms of racial equality. The maker of this film apparently has no idea what happened in Australia around the same time. The stolen generations (also called stolen children) were the children of the Australian Aborigines and the descendants of the Torres Strait Islander who were removed from their families by their federal and state government agencies and church missions on behalf of their respective parliaments.
tearjerker story, but extremely stupid - from the very beginning to the very end. Why they couldn't think that the lost child could has a mother and she may looking for her child? Why could not two mothers agree on the gradual transfer of the child's to real mother, or at least to raise a child together? All the problems in this story are far-fetched stories or characters are complete idiots.