Friday, September 2, 2016

Movie Review: The Light Between Oceans

The Light Between Oceans is a great novel written some years ago by M. L. Steadman. This story is brilliant and so is this movie which will probably receive the Oscar for best-adapted screenplay. I do not recommend this movie for any woman who has ever had a miscarriage or who has ever lost a baby because many scenes deal with this subject are as difficult to watch and heart wrenching, as any movie I have ever seen. This movie has a roller coaster of more human emotions than I have ever seen before in one film, including love, hate, betrayal, revenge, extreme sadness, depression, happiness and fear.

What makes this movie so great is that it points out the human motivations and decisions we make in life that we decide because of extreme emotions caused by temporary circumstances. To create a great story, emotional decisions like the ones in this film have to make sense and have some logic behind them and this movie delivers this perfectly throughout. Fundamentally, short-term relief of a decision may give you long-term grief for the rest of your life and cause you more agony than the original problem ever caused you in the first place. This movie also tries to answer a very fundamental question. Can two wrongs make a right? For the complex and well told story behind this great movie, the answer to that question is yes. The point is, after a certain period of time, it can just be too late to undo a huge mistake that you make due to extreme emotions because then it might hurt other people, in this case a 4 year old girl.

Everything about this movie, the story, the dialogue, the scenery, the twists and turns are all outstanding making this a must see flim. Alicia Vikander is the lead actress in this movie and Michael Fassbender plays her husband. Alicia has a career in movies right now that is exploding, especially after winning an Academy Award for best supporting actor for the Danish Girl and this movie could give her another Oscar nomination. Fassbender and Vikander are now in a relationship after working together in this movie, which is understandable because of the powerful love story in this film. Due to the highly emotional scenes in this film, some parts are very difficult to watch, but this potential downside comes with movies like this one that are this emotional and so well done. This movie along with Indignation, also reviewed in this blog are two of the best films of the year. The Light Between Oceans gets my highest recommendation.



The Light Between Oceans

No comments: