By Emilio Frenk
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Rachel Weisz, Florence Clery, Jack Thompson, Thomas Unger, Anthony Hayes, Emily Barclay and Bryan Brown.
Rating: Excellent.
Derek Cianfrance, director of “Blue Valentine” and “The Place Beyond the Pines” brings another drama. “The Light Between Oceans” and this is such a great drama film.
Based on the Best Selling Novel by M.L. Stedman, the movie tells the story of Tom Sherbourne (Michael Fassbender) a war veteran now a lighthouse keeper in the Western Coast of Australia who lives with the his wife Isabel (Alicia Vikander).
After suffering two miscarriages, the life of the couple will have a huge turn when they rescue a baby from a rowboat. This will lead to an informal adoption and it will change the course of their lives forever.
The couple are more happier than ever but everything will change again for them when a woman from a wealthy Australian family named Hannah Potts (Rachel Weisz) finds out that the baby that both Isabel and Tom have happens to be her daughter that got lost at sea and she will do anything to have her back.
Now Isabel and Tom must decide what to do with the girl and their lives before it’s too late.
Of all the movies that Cianfrance has made except “Cage Fighter” which is a documentary, he always shows the isolation with his characters and here is no different. “The Light Between Oceans” besides being his most ambitious one is so far the best movie of his career. The connection and chemistry between Fassbender and Vikander it’s top of the notch and delivers the goods.
Cianfrance was really smart on not only directing two Academy Award Winning Actresses (Rachel Weisz and Alicia Vikander) and an Nominee (Fassbender) but in writing a very sweet and truthful screenplay.
“The Light Between Oceans” is one top list on one of the best movie of this year and it really touched my heart in many ways.
The movie has a huge message towards forgiveness and not holding grudge on people and it did work. I put this movie as one of the surprises of the next awards ceremony and it could nail for both Fassbender and Vikander another nomination on their careers.
One suggestion I would like to give is that read the novel before watching the movie since it’s a great piece of modern literature and the other is bring yourself a package of tissues to the movie theater. Once you leave the theater you will be touched and moved by this film.
I give a huge recommendation to “The Light Between Oceans” for what I just mentioned previously and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.