The Light Between Oceans Movie Review

Based on the best-selling novel, The Light Between Oceans is an epic movie about love, moral dilemmas and what one will do for their loved one. Set in Australia after the Great War, Tom Sherbourne (Michael Fassbender), is a veteran who is looking for solitude as he had seen so many of those around him die and he now lives with the guilt of having survived. He takes up a job as a lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, a job that no one wants, and will give Tom the isolation he believes that he needs.

Fate, however, has other plans for Tom. On his way to Janus he meets Isabel Graysmark (Alicia Vikander), a beautiful woman who has lost her two brothers in the war. Their love blossoms and over time the two are married. Tom brings Isabel back to Janus Rock. Unable to start a family, hope arrives in a rowboat with an infant girl being held by a dead man. Isabel feels that this was meant to be and wants to take the child as their own. Tom feels that the right thing to do is to report the child and the dead man.

In the end, Tom gives in to Isabel and they raise the child as their own, who they name Lucy. Years later when they visit the mainland, Tom discovers, by mere coincidence, who the child may be. This is when things really begin to unfold and a love triangle between parents begins. Tom and Isabel on one side and Hannah (Rachel Weisz), who is Lucy's biological mother, on the other. A series of twists and turns follows.

Fassbender gives us another powerful performance as a man who has given up on the world and fate won't let him. Vikander proves why she continues to be one of my favorite actresses in a role that you still fell sympathetic for Isabel even when she has completely flown off the rails. Weisz provides another equally powerful performance as she is perhaps the most complex and sympathetic character in the movie.

What will happen? Watch The Light Between Oceans when it opens in theaters on September 2nd to find out.