THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS (Derek Cianfrance). 132 minutes. Opens Friday (September 2). See showtimes. Rating: NNN
The Light Between Oceans may not be writer/director Derek Cianfrance’s finest film (that would be Blue Valentine by a country mile), but it’s a solid enough picture with some terrific performances, and dropping it into the wasteland of Labour Day weekend just seems wrong. Surely, Disney could have waited a week or two for a splashy TIFF launch.
Set in Australia not long after the First World War, it stars Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander as a lighthouse keeper and his wife who live in happy isolation but long for a child.
When a dinghy washes up on their island containing a dead man and a live infant, they decide to take the girl in and raise her as their own – only to be racked with guilt when, years later, they discover the child’s mother (Rachel Weisz) is still alive.
Cianfrance once again burrows into the emotional anguish at the heart of his story, shaping M.L. Stedman’s novel into a symphony of grief, guilt and redemption played out with epic widescreen sweep worthy of David Lean.
It’s ambitious as hell, and all three actors are up for the challenge, but the film’s momentum slips away in the final movement when characters are separated and isolated by the demands of the plot. That isn’t to say the movie doesn’t work it just doesn’t land as hard as Cianfrance clearly wants it to.
