Review of The Lighthouse (2019) by Hannibalb — 23 Feb 2020

The makers of this mess of a film throw in a lot of things to suggest that it has a deep meaning, but that meaning has to be supplied by the viewer, because the writers didn't know what they were doing.

The Lighthouse begins well but when the wind changes about halfway through, it devolves into chaos. The story wanders, the characters become inconsistant and their motivations obscur. The actors are not at fault: their performances are excellent, but they're working with confused and unfinished material.

What is really going on in this tale? Is Thomas Howard cursed? Is he mad? Is Defoe's character the mad one? Are the avian souls of the dead sailors offended? Are the supernatural entities real? Is the scrimshaw figure cursed.

Do these two just drink too much? Is everything brought together by some grand Promethean theme? Is Cthulhu lurking in the cold vastness of space? I don't know, and neither does anybody else, including the writers.

Rationalize this any way you want, and you'll be right. This is the J.J. Abrams school of film, nested in arty cinematography and compelling performances: throw a lot of shocking visual elements at the viewer so that he won't try to make sense of the story.

But who can care about any of this? There is no sense that the plot is building towards anything or that there is any unifying theme or idea. So, despite all the frantic action and pseudo-sibylline ranting, this movie is a big bore.