The Lighthouse

Atmospheric, moody, with the potential to be a great psychological thriller, but sadly degenerates into two men yelling at each other and drinking a seemingly inexhaustable supply of grog.

Without much back story for these dishevelled lighthouse keepers in a craggy outcrop set in 1801 it's hard to get emotionally invested in their plight when things start to go wrong. As it progressed I just wanted it to end. Plot holes appear very quickly and the timeline gets a little muddled. Initially they have a Kings banquet of food stores yet a mere month in they are down to rashuns. But always well stocked with grog... A brutal storm rages outside while inside the brooding characters quickly become bitter enemies fighting each other and their own inner demons. One uses his religion as solace while the other ridicules him constantly for using God as strength, an embittered atheist who becomes a very unlikeable character. And in a darkened atmosphere the descent into madness begins. And drags on. The night seems endless and here the movie descends into a frustrating mishmash of illusions and delusions and self loathing. And always the grog... It had potential to be good, and will always be compared to the 2019 version which was superior in most ways, so this will be forever be the lesser of the two 'Lighthouse' movies. I scored it mostly for the set and atmosphere. The weak story and unlikeable characters added little to this overly long movie for me.

Since it's shot in one room basically with two actors doing pretty much nothing, why were there 8 companies involved? Did each one take on the movie and realize what a drag it was and passed it on to another?

I stayed for the atmosphere as I watched this movie slowly but steadily lose any purpose with every passing minute and turn into nothing.

This really is a superbly cast and very well acted film, that psychologically grips us from imagining ourselves in the situations. I am shocked by the aggregate review; it ought to be much higher.

The film is based on a true story, but if you're looking for a light film this is not it.

It haunts so much that I still think of it 4 years after its release.

A British drama; A story inspired by a true event in 1801 about two men in an isolated lighthouse on The Smalls, a forbidding cluster of basalt rocks 25 miles off the Welsh coast. It's glum and bleak, and the narrative leads to the macabre, but ultimately, it's a dour and disappointing drama. It's not difficult to create drama with a two-hander in a lighthouse, but the director makes hard work of it. The two characters are given a scant backstory, so the actors are left to give nuance, but they create what comes across as unexplained moodiness and skulking, which becomes tedious, and dialogue that adds very little and is telegraphed by their facial expressions. This is underscored by foreboding music that grates while it lasts a full half hour. Trite lines are repeated, like "until the job is done," referring to inclement weather, and "we have a job to do," which might seem ironic for a persevering viewer.

A great depiction of what might have happened those days the 2 men, both named Thomas, were watching the lighthouse and the seemly never ending storm that struck.

While their month long stay as lighthouse keepers was ending a horrific storm beared down on the lighthouse for days. Their supplies were almost out (food, clean water and lamp oil) and a ship will not sail into this awful storm to bring the new keepers and let the 2 Thomas' go home. These 2 men have to wait it out at the cost of their lives and sanity.

Impressive film - I highly enjoyed this one!

8.5/10.