The Light Between Oceans is a love story film which comes directed by Derek Cianfrance who some may know as the director of Blue Valentine (2010). The film stars Michael Fassbender (Tom) and Alicia Vikander (Isabel) who play a couple who get married and live out their lives on an isolated small island where they are in charge of a lighthouse. At the lighthouse, the couple plan to build a life together.
This is an interesting love story film in that while for the beginning part of it, it’s all about Tom (Michael Fassbender) and Isabel (Alicia Vikander) falling in love and getting married. Much of the film centres around their problems with having a child and then later finding a baby at sea and deciding that instead of reporting it, they’ll keep it and raise the baby as their own. It’s a very emotional film about a family trying to form in an isolated place. There’s a lot of nice happy moments, but there’s also a lot of sad ones too. I must admit that the film was so emotionally charged that I even felt a bit sad once it ended. The ending is the strongest part of the film and one I think that may possibly make many viewers shed a tear. I won’t spoil any of what happens of course.
The actors are quite good. I’ve never really seen Michael Fassbender in anything memorable other than his role as Magneto in the X-Men films. But in here, we got to see a different side to his acting. However I never really felt blown away by his performance here, he’s okay but not phenomenal. Alicia Vikander is pretty good and she had quite a few very emotional scenes. Both worked well together in the film and when it came to the emotional moments, they both brought their best to it.
The directing from Derek Cianfrance is great and he’s also written the screenplay for this one as well. Even though that The Light Between Oceans is a little long, with a run time of 2 hours and 13 minutes, I felt that things by the end seemed just right. It wasn’t stretched out more than it needed to be and left me emotionally impacted by the end and I think many people in the screening too, so overall I think it was well done. The film is slow paced though, so you mustn’t be a person who’s easily bored by this, it’s not a fast paced blockbuster. It’s a nice emotional romance film.
Overall The Light Between Oceans is a great pick for you should you be wanting to go out and see a romance film this weekend. I highly recommend watching this. It’s more of a story about the love between the family as a whole group rather than a story about finding love between just a couple and it’s nice to have this type of story as there aren’t many films out there about the love inside a family group. It’s also got to very likeable lead actors, Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander and I also think it’s possibly director Derek Cianfrance’s best film so far.
