The Light Between Oceans Official Trailer #1 (2016) - Alicia Vikander, Michael Fassbender Movie HD
With the film"s tone already set in salt and magnified by Alexandre Desplat"s soaring yet ominous score there"s very little pleasure to be had in watching the couple bask in the warmth of parenthood. As surely as that lighthouse beam will swing round again, the baby"s mother is certain to come looking for her and in the fiercely distraught person of Rachel Weisz, no less.
Ah, but I have ventured further into the plot than the trailer reveals. Let"s just say the layers of tragedy that are heaped upon these characters create a Dagwood sandwich of misfortune. The only way to relieve their wretchedness is to cut away from the action and return 25 years later, at which point one or two final indignities are tossed in for good measure.
In 2004, I interviewed James Elkins, an academic who wrote Pictures & Tears, a history of art that exists primarily to make people cry. Yes, Elkins explained, before modern movies came along to lead the charge, entire schools of painting and sculpture had been created for precisely this reason.
"Crying at a movie puts you in touch with emotions you would ordinarily suppress," Elkins said. "It"s good to lose control sometimes. Otherwise you"re setting yourself up as someone who knows more about the world than Leonardo or Hitchcock."
The Light Between Oceans is no Hitchcock, nor is it about to be screened beside the Mona Lisa at the Louvre. But like the works of those ingenious craftsmen, the film accomplishes its primary objective with consummate efficiency and skill.
Yes, it"s crying time again. But for more than enough moviegoers, that"s no crying shame.
Bill Newcott is a writer, editor and movie critic for AARP Media.
Source: http://www.aarp.org/entertainment/movies-for-grownups/info-2016/the-light-between-oceans-movie-review-bn.html
