The Light Between Oceans (2017) [Movie Review]

Dir: Derek Cianfrance
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander
Dur: 2 hrs 12 mins
Genre: Romantic - Drama
PG: Few kisses and a couple of intimate scenes
Rating: 6.5/10

It is said that people seek happiness and it is quite true. Nearly every action of ours is aimed at achieving happiness, it may not seem like it now but down the line we believe happiness is there waiting for us with open arms, ready to comfort us for all the sacrifices we’ve made and difficulties overcome. But what about happiness that comes at the cost of someone else’s happiness. Is it justified? Is it outrageous?

Meet Tom Sherbourne (Michael Fassbender) a war veteran who is tormented by such thoughts after rescuing and ‘illegally’ detaining a baby lost at sea. Tom and his wife, Isabel (Alicia Vikander) have lost 2 kids in three years and find their marriage straining with each loss. Just when it seemed like despair had clouded the sky, the shrill cries of a washed up infant cut their melancholic reveries and bring out the sun once again. Isabel urges Tom to quietly adopt the child and he reluctantly agrees, army discipline has not left him completely and neither has his scrupulous conscience quietened since returning from the war.

Four happy years pass and just when all seems well, Tom finds his conscience stirred up once again as he sees a woman wailing before the tombstone of her missing husband and child. The math isn’t that hard to do and here exactly the story gets its much awaited twist. We suddenly find ourselves debating with Tom the righteousness of his actions. The film suddenly moves from a romance to an ethical drama. The sequence of events here on out are simply brilliant. Little wonder that they come from a novel. The film is well shot and directed. The actors deliver stellar performances and the ending is quite something.

The trailer provides precious little but sufficient to catch your attention. The film is really worth the while. There are a number of issues it throws up and forces you to reflect over. The poignancy of the whole plot is also quite heart-rending. Looking for a heart-tugging experience, look no further.     


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Great Grand Masti 2 (2016) (Movie Review)

Image
Dir: Indra Kumar Starring: Vivek Oberoi, Riteish Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani, Urvashi Rautela Dur: 2 hrs 10 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: 1/10 Comment: The jokes, gestures and costumes are sexually suggestive. An absolute waste of time. “What an opening line”, you might think. But to say otherwise would be an absolute lie. This film is in fact, a great grand waste of time. It’s horrible whichever way you look at it. The story is weak and thrives on cheap thrills and sorry jokes. The actresses are no doubt eye-catching but the rest is all a blur. The comedy is in fact tragedy and the film attempts to play on the basest desires of man. It’s unbelievable that actors like Riteish and Vivek would do such a film. I am not a big fan of bollywood but I still feel bad when I see bollywood making films like these. All of a sudden, I see that sex is being propagated through Indian cinema. The views of sex are changing and filmmakers and actors are not hesitating to take on unconvent...
Read more

A Day with Don Bosco

                              Don Bosco was declared the Patron of Youth by Pope John Paul II in 1989. He received his mission: to be Father to the young, in a dream at the tender age of nine. He nurtured this call throughout his life and never wasted an opportunity to gather boys and direct them to God. He did not do this as a spiritual director, (at least no at first!) but rather as a friend, a companion and a seminarian. As a young boy, he would attract youngsters with his magic tricks, tightrope skills, games etc and then get them to recite the rosary with him or recount to them the Sunday sermon (which he remembered thanks to his prodigious memory). Already then, he had ingeniously found a way to combine religion and entertainment. His entertainment was necer for entertainment sake but rather a façade or an advertisment for religious instruction. Even as a young pries...
Read more

St. Joseph: A Father after the Father's Heart (Book Review)

Image
  St. Joseph: A Father after the Father’s Heart , Hyderabad: Don Bosco Publishing House, 2021, Rs. 150, pp. 240. The book is a compilation of articles from various authors writing about qualities of St. Joseph. They have used the litany of St. Joseph as an index and have put together articles on each of the invocations. All the contributors are Salesians from different parts of India but there a couple of contributors from abroad as well. The book lends itself to be a souvenir of the Year of St. Joseph that Pope Francis declared. Let me start out by commenting on the quality of production. The paper is of good quality and so is the design and layout. It is neat and has an attractive cover. Coming to the content, it gets rather repetitive but that is understandable considering that there is so little Biblical foundation for an exposition of St. Joseph. The articles often reference Pope Francis’ letter Patris Corde and extensively utilize Pope St. John Paul II’s apostolic exhort...
Read more