The Light Between Oceans

As the summer film season is slowly coming to an end, it's time for Hollywood to start rafting out their certain dose of dramas--mostly smaller productions. Case in point is that of "The Light Between Oceans" whereas its core premise centers around a younger couple and their desperation in having a family and will do just about anything to obtain one. We've seen films of this type before, but not as carefully crafted as this one.

An Australian World War I veteran, Tom Sherbourne (Michael Fassbender) takes a position as a lighthouse keeper in the year 1918 on an isolated island off the coast of Western Australia. He meets his future wife, Isabel Graysmark (Alicia Vikander) at a social function her parents, Bill Graysmark (Garry Macdonald) and Violet (Jane Menelaus) are giving at the nearest coastal town, and the two hit it off almost instantly. Soon they wed and the two start their new life alone at the lighthouse. Once settled, they notice a small dinghy that washes ashore with a newborn inside, and after much discussion, they decide to raise the infant as their own. This obviously brings in a barrage of questions: who is this infant? Even though the father appears to have died, where's the mother? Should they tell the authorities?

Others to round out the cast are Rachel Weisz as Hannah Roenfeldt, Florence Clery as Lucy-Grace, Bryan Brown as Septimus Potts, Jack Thompson as Ralph Addicott, Emily Barclay as Gwen Potts, Thomas Unger as Bluey Smart, Anthony Hayes as Sgt. Vernon Knuckley and Leon Ford as Frank Roenfeldt.

This was painstakingly well delineated by writer and director Derek Cianfrance ("Brother Tied" '98, "Blue Valentine" '10, "Cagefighter" (Documentary) '12, "The Place Beyond the Pines" '12) plus shorts and TV documentaries. The subtleness of the different character emotions, given certain pivotal scenes, were incredibly realistic, however with actors such as Fassbender and Vikander, it certainly helps. His writing of this was cleverly honed with such pathos from his characters that one felt that you were eavesdropping into someone's life. And really other than a couple of small places of slowness, this seemingly ordinary couple living lives with good and bad times just jumped off its pages and certainly kept my attention throughout this two and a quarter hour running time. I don't want to give too much away, but suffice it to say this story certainly lives by the old adage, "oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive". You be the judge.

If fine acting, directing and writing is your passion, this is the film that will appease that yearning, however if something shallow, back-stabbing, conniving is more your thing, this film is something that not only you might not like, but even more to the point, it probably is a film you shouldn't see as well.

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                Rated: PG-13                                    133mins.