After taking on roles in thrillers like Dream House and The Bourne Legacy, then a supporting part in the big-budget blockbuster Oz the Great and Powerful, Rachel Weisz is getting back to smaller dramatic fare by joining Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander in the Derek Cianfrance-directed The Light Between Oceans.
The drama, an adaptation of the bestselling novel of the same name by M.L. Stedman, is set on a remote island off the coast of Australia in the years following World War I. It centers on a lighthouse keeper (Fassbender) and his lonely wife (Vikander), who are faced with an unexpected moral conundrum when a small boat containing a dead man and a two-month-old infant washes ashore. When the pair decide to keep the child and raise it as their own, the consequences of that choice are devastating.
Weisz is set to play the mother of the infant, who eventually comes into contact with the lighthouse keeper and his wife. It’s refreshing to see her take a change of pace from bigger movies to come aboard what’s sure to be a deeply dramatic and thought-provoking project. Cianfrance previously proved he was adept at delivering emotional powerhouse dramas with Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines, and with the excellent cast he has for The Light Between Oceans, there’s no reason to suspect that his new film will be anything less than a resounding success.
If you want more information about the film, the Amazon synopsis sheds more light on what we can expect from The Light Between Oceans. Check it out below, and let us know if this drama is on your must-see list, as it is ours.
After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season and shore leaves are granted every other year at best, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.
Tom, whose records as a lighthouse keeper are meticulous and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel has taken the tiny baby to her breast. Against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.
M. L. Stedman’s mesmerizing, beautifully written novel seduces us into accommodating Isabel’s decision to keep this “gift from God.” And we are swept into a story about extraordinarily compelling characters seeking to find their North Star in a world where there is no right answer, where justice for one person is another’s tragic loss.
The Light Between Oceans is exquisite and unforgettable, a deeply moving novel.