Review of The Light Between Oceans (2016) by Nate Z — 05 Sep 2016

"The Light Between Oceans" is the first "Oscar Bait" film of award season. And it just doesn't hold up to those expectations. The score is beautiful, the performances are top notch, and the story is often heartbreaking.

.. But maybe too heartbreaking. The first third of the movie is fantastic with long scenes that make the weather feel like its own character due to the great cinematography by Adam Arkapaw. But the filmmakers throw tragedy after tragedy at us so many times throughout the rest of the duration that we start to expect it and the many scenes that would normally fill us with sadness, start to feel unneeded and have little to no impact at all.

You can tell that director Derek Cianfrance really loved the source material by how carefully he crafted each scene, but it seems he got caught up in being a fan a little too much by throwing all of this at us in just one film.

This isn't as brilliant as "Blue Valentine", but it's a worthy entrant into Cianfrance's growing filmography.