The Lightkeepers

I don't normally watch movies like this. I watched it because I liked Tom Wisdom in Dominion. This is a sweet story of two men (one older, one younger) who have lost themselves and lost love and find it all again. The costumes are beautiful, especially the women's dresses, and the setting is beautiful and the various accents are well done.

My wife and I really enjoyed this simple movie. No CGI, no swearing, drug use or gratuitous pandering. It's a fun look at the battle of the sexes and also the fencing among men when they get together. I loved the dialogue and the back and forth between the two men. For older audiences this would be a welcome entertainment. I could see how this movie would transfer easily onto the stage as well.

This film is the kind of movie you wish you could see all the time. It was sweet, a bit slow but not obnoxiously so and well acted. Richard Dreyfuss is one of my favorites and he is perfectly curmudgeonly in this movie. Tom Wisdom is delightful and Blythe Danner was gorgeous! Mamie Gummer's face kept taunting me until I looked her up and discovered she is Meryl Streep's daughter. She was very understated in the film and is quite a good actress. There was mystery in the film, which was not what I expected. It reminded me of the old British comedy of manners films where there is misdirection and mistaken identities. It was a fun movie to watch and I would recommend it to anyone who likes films that are thoughtful and amusing. I just loved it!

What a relief to see a movie that was actually "made," not "digitally processed," although Blythe Danner still looks so terrific, it's tempting to believe she had help. Maybe Richard Dreyfuss puts on a "Kap'n Karl" growl a little more than necessary as an irascible woman-hater lighthouse keeper; but Tom Wisdom as his assistant-with-a-secret, with a Michael York voice coming out of a Keanu Reeves face, keeps up with him. The film manages--no easy feat in this day and age--to be a charming, sweet (maybe a tad too much), simple story about people, not special effects, without descending to the TV movie level. It's not an action-packed roller coaster ride, nobody farts or masturbates, nobody's naked, and nobody explodes, so it may confuse modern moviegoers (at least the ones under 30). But "The Lightkeepers," in its own modest way, has its own rewards, not the least of which being a rare--if short--screen appearance by Julie Harris toward the end.

Plot from an old novel

Author: dsgrundy from United States 14 May 2013

I probably enjoyed this movie so much, because I'm an avid reader of old books and recognized this story the minute I saw it. This movie plot was taken almost verbatim, including most of the character names and main events from an old Cape Cod story by author Joseph C. Lincoln. The book was titled "The Women Haters" and the original copy-write was 1904.

* * * * * *

A cut-down (novella length) version with the same title was also published in Ainslee's Magazine, v. 27, May, 1911, pp. 1-37. (Dr. Charles G. Waugh)