Une vie entre deux océans

"She doesn't belong to us. We can't keep her." Tom (Michael Fassbender)

I was ready to witness a Nicholas Sparks imitator with The Light Between Oceans; rather I enjoyed a whiff of Thomas Hardy. A newly-married couple, Tom and Isabel (Alicia Vikander), living on a remote lighthouse island off the west coast of Australia in the second decade of the twentieth century, find a baby washed ashore in a rowboat. The tension comes not from storms at sea but the ramifications of their keeping the child a secret.

Notwithstanding the absurd good fortune that they find a baby after her two miscarriages, the story becomes increasingly complex with intersecting themes of passionate love and doing the right thing. Where this does not become a maudlin, sentimental romance is in a few realistic details. Most of us would question whether we would keep the child, given that we may never have one ourselves, just as this couple does.

Along the way, the accomplished acting throws a powerful cast over the proceedings so that as outrageously melodramatic as it may seem, the film relentlessly shows at each turn how conscience does indeed make cowards of us all. Just as what he has done preys on Tom's conscience, the needs of his wife to have a child overcome this otherwise beacon of upright manhood and good sense.

The end of WWI brings survivors like Tom an overpowering guilt that he survived while so many others didn't. With the presence of a child who belongs to someone else, he is tortured by thoughts of taking a loved one away as the war did for so many families.

Fassbender is the Oscar contender he was meant to be. His every facial muscle works to show immense joy at his marriage and deep sorrow at his crime. Vikander is equally convincing as a youthful bride with grit and joy who convinces her husband, sworn to save lives in the lighthouse, to endanger himself and her by his foolish act.

The cinematography is frequently gorgeous, and the romantic Andre Desplat music lovely but manipulative. While writer and director Derek Cianfrance navigates occasionally successfully through some choppy tear-jerking scenes (the close-ups of Vikander's tears are too many), it's still also a melodrama with too many fateful turns.

Besides, what handsome, sensitive war veteran would exile himself to a lighthouse? Only if he knew Alicia Vikander would join him!

For those who were fans of the book, it was a great adaptation. It was slow, but that was certainly true to the book.

The acting was excellent, and I loved the cast. Fassbender and Weisz are always winners, of course - Vikander I have enjoyed in the three movies I've seen her in. She was great when she needed to be great in this movie - there were some very dramatic and poignant scenes, and she pulled them off.

I loved the cinematography – especially the scenes filmed on the island – the constant wind! That was something which was conveyed in the book, but it's hard to keep "constant ferocious screaming wind" in your head while reading, because it would be awful if it were mentioned every paragraph, yet it's easy to forget that crucial detail while reading – the movie definitely conveyed that. Very atmospheric.

Yes, it was on the slow side - so don't watch it while drowsy, and you should be fine!

The Light Between Oceans starts Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander and Rachel Weisz. And its the story of a couple living in a lighthouse and in the ocean they find a baby. And that's all I am going to say since the trailer again ruined some important plot points of the film. This movie is very slow but is the kind of movie in which almost everything is on point and it never goes to a route in which derails the movie, I was pleasantly surprised! I loved this film! The cinematography is amazing with a lot of shots of the ocean and the wind, it was truly jaw-dropping. The acting was also great, Michael Fassbender as always gives a brilliant performance. But the actress who surprised me a lot is Alicia Vikander. She is fantastic as this lady who has lost a lot and has a lot of regret. She was truly Oscar-worthy. The story was great as it is not only about the relationship between Tom and Isabel, but it's also about guilt, sadness, loss, etc. The ending floured me, I absolutely loved it. The only issue I have is that Toms and Isabels relationship is a bit rushed and with no real sense of direction, and the beginning is kind-off slow but then it picks it right back up the next 5 minutes. I had a great time with this film and i would recommend it to everybody who wants to experience a heart-breaking story that is actually realistic and authentic.

If you are not addicted to entertainment motion picture and you prefer deeper meaning. This movie is in my point of view a must watch. Metascore rated this movie 60 whilst it should be 75 minimum. Watch and if I am wrong please tell me why.

Michael Fassbender just takes emotion to a very realistic place and portrays a man with fear , regrets , love. The decision he makes , as a man , we can relate to it. Alicia Vikander also takes you on a journey that helps you understand what being a parent mean and the sacrifices that comes along with it.

Rachel Weisz plays her role very well and together with the two main actors gives us some very emotional scene. I was touched by this movie and blow away by the acting.

Some beautiful shots are taken and really helps to get in the mood for something different , heartbreaking , questionable . The line between right and wrong can be difficult to see and this movie also decides not to give you what you expect. The narrative of the story is simple and yet very complicated once you try understand the reasons for certain decision. Without really realising you , as an audience you start to ask yourself , what would do , as a women , as a man.

Questions like this scares people unfortunately , but I think we should embrace those movies that challenges you emotionally. It is part of who we are.

In my review of "The Two Faces of January" I described it as a film that "will be particularly enjoyed by older viewers who remember when story and location were put far ahead of CGI-based special effects". In watching this film I was again linking in my mind to that earlier film... and that was before the lead character suddenly brought up the two faces of Janus! For this is a good old-fashioned weepy melodrama: leisurely, character based and guaranteed to give the tear ducts a good old cleaning out.

It's 1918 and Michael Fassbender plays Tom Sherbourne, a damaged man seeking solitude and reflection after four years of hell in the trenches. As a short-term job he takes the post of lighthouse keeper on the isolated slab of rock called Janus - sat between two oceans (presumably as this is Western Australia, the Indian and the Southern Oceans). The isolation of the job previously sent his predecessor off his trolley.

En route to his workplace he is immediately attracted to headmaster's daughter Isabel (Alicia Vikander) who practically THROWS herself at Tom (the hussy), given that they only have snatches of a day at a time to be together during shore leave. Tom falls for her (as a hot blooded man, and with Vikander's performance, this is entirely believable!) and the two marry to retire to their 'fortress of solitude' together to raise a family and live happily ever after.... or not... For the path of true motherhood runs not smoothly for poor Isabel, and a baby in a drifting boat spells both joy and despair for the couple as the story unwinds.

(I'll stop my synopsis there, since I think the trailer - and other reviews I've read - give too much away).

While Fassbender again demonstrates what a mesmerising actor he is, the acting kudos in this one really goes again to Vikander, who pulls out all the stops in a role that demands fragility, naivety, resentment, anger and despair across its course. While I don't think the film in general will trouble the Oscars, this is a leading actress performance that I could well see nominated. In a supporting role, with less screen-time, is Rachel Weisz who again needs to demonstrate her acting stripes in a demanding role. (Also a shout-out to young Florence Clery who is wonderfully naturalistic as the 4 year old Lucy-Grace.) So this is a film with a stellar class, but it doesn't really all gel together satisfyingly into a stellar - or at least particularly memorable - movie. After a slow start, director Derek Cianfrance ("The Place Beyond the Pines") ladles on the melodrama interminably, and over a two hour running time the word overwrought comes to mind.

The script (also by Cianfrance, from the novel by M.L.Stedman) could have been tightened up, particularly in the first reel, and the audience given a bit more time to reflect and absorb in the second half.

The film is also curiously 'place-less'. I assumed this was somewhere off Ireland until someone suddenly starting singing "Waltzing Matilda" (badly) and random people started talking in Aussie accents: most strange.

Cinematography by Adam Arkapaw ("Macbeth") is also frustratingly inconsistent. The landscapes of the island, steam trains, sunsets and the multiple boatings in between is just beautiful (assisted by a delicate score by the great Alexandre Desplat which is well used) but get close up (and the camera does often get VERY close up) and a lack of 'steadicam' becomes infuriating, with faces dancing about the screen and - in one particular scene early on - wandering off on either side with the camera apparently unsure which one to follow! A memorable cinema experience only for Vikander's outstanding performance. Now where are those tissues...

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