The Light Between Oceans

Writer/Director Derek Cianfrance’s  The Light Between Oceans is incredibly sad, then incredibly beautiful, then incredibly sad, then incredibly beautiful, then…and so on.

Tom Sherbourne (Michael Fassbender) suffers from survivor’s guilt at the end of World War I and takes a job as a lighthouse keeper off the coast of Western Australia. 

 

Tom marries Isabel Graysmark (Alicia Vikander), but their attempts to have a child ends with two miscarriages.  However, fate intervenes with a baby and a dead man floating to shore in a small rowboat. 

 Isabel convinces her husband to keep the child as their own.

This works for about 5 years until Tom runs across Hannah Roennfeldt (Rachel Weisz), who lost her husband and baby in a storm 5 years prior.

The twists and turns are not as simple as one might think.  And, they are all heartfelt and anguishing, even for viewers, who get involved on one side or the other.

Vikander and Fassbender are at their best and Cianfrance’s script and direction are exceptional.

I give The Light Between Oceans a 4 out of 5.  And bring some tissues.