The Light Between Oceans, directed by Ryan Gosling fanboy Derek Cianfrance (Place Beyond the Pines, Blue Valentine) is the latest offering in the weepy romance cinema stakes. Adapted from the smash hit novel by M.L. Stedman, the story follows a couple in the 1920s who - swept up in the isolation of their uninhabited lighthouse island - think it could be a great idea to steal a baby that washes up next to a dead man in a dinghy. So far, so absolutely normal. A love story for the ages.
Starring Michael Fassbender (Shame, 12 Years a Slave) as World War I veteran Tom Sherbourne and Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina, The Danish Girl) as local lovely Isabel Graysmark, The Light Between Oceans promises love, heartbreak, pain and joy - perhaps going head to head with Me Before You to be 2016's tissue-wielding answer to The Notebook. With Sherbourne taking a lighthouse keeper job on Shanus Rock off the coast of Western Australia, he quickly becomes besotted with Isabel. They fall head over heels in love over what feels like one smile across a table and half a picnic on the hill.
What follows, in equally quick succession, is a wedding and two tragic miscarriages. As heart-wrenching as it is to see Isabel doubled over in both physical and emotional pain at the loss of another life, the film constantly feels like it is rushing to get to the good part: the reckless stealing of the cute baby. Perhaps it's because the beats of a novel don't always translate well to film, but there were many great leaps through time and progressions in their relationship that felt wholly unearned. Fassbender and Vikander, famously falling in love in real life while shooting the film, maintain a palpable chemistry despite all the haste.
Make no mistake: The Light Between Oceans is not all French kissing, love hearts and butterflies. With the couple becoming slightly unhinged and deluded on their own slice of paradise, the film becomes as much a statement on human reason, and how we need societal structures to keep the old noggin in check. That said, the pristine locations of the film are absolutely stunning, from the crashing ocean on the jagged rocks to the stark towering cliff faces. It's a shame that within such beauty lies a pretty gloomy story, one that foolishly trusts the audience will get behind the whole stealing-a-baby concept. I didn't, and I got very bored.
