It is still my most effusive praise for the film. Mothers have discerning, if particular, taste and Cianfrance's handsome production, backed by well-accented performances from Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander and Rachel Weisz, and airy shallow-focus from cinematographer Adam Arkapaw, does prestige Aussie drama at a level we're rarely treated to with local productions.
And I've got to say, I was impressed with how well everyone involved nailed the time and place.
Still, The Light Between Oceans doesn't quite pull free of its matronly trappings. The narrative, drawn from M.L. Stedman's novel of the same name, which sees a quietly spoken lighthouse keeper and his young wife take surreptitious custody of a baby that washes up on their island, is helplessly melodramatic.
Cianfrance, who's toyed with drama this wet in the past (but always with a harder edge) doesn't find much complexity in the emotions (and if there's any to be had, his screenplay spells it out with ambiguity-draining compunction). He's quite content to roll around on the well-dressed surface.
My mother will forgive him that. And so will most, I'd imagine. For me, it was a little too obvious. And more than a little indulgent.
★★★
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