(RATING: ☆☆☆½ out of 5 ) THIS FILM IS RECOMMENDED. IN BRIEF: Well directed and powerfully acted, but it still can't hide its soap opera origins. GRADE: B- SYNOPSIS: A lonely lighthouse keeper marries and hide a dark secret about his family. JIM'S REVIEW: The things we do for love! Based on M.L. Stedman's best-selling romance novel, director Derek Cianfrance takes a beautiful swoon-worthy couple and places them directly in harm''s way. His sudsy melodrama is picture card lovely, set in the early 1900's, with gorgeous sunsets and sandy dunes aplenty, but his characters are not real in any sense. Still, the actors work real magic with their one-dimensional cut-out cardboard characters. Michael Fassbender, looking every inch like an Arrow Collar Man (and then some), plays Tom Sherborne, an ex-soldier haunted by his war experiences. Searching for solitude and inner peace, he goes to the outer banks of Australia to take a solitary job as lighthouse keeper. It is there, he falls in love with Isabel, played by Alicia Vikander, They coo, woo, and marry and life seems complete...until ugly things happen to beautiful people like them. Unable to have a family, starts to unhinge as is helplessly struggling to cope with her melancholia. All seems lost, that is, until fate brings them a small bundle of joy via a tragic boating accident. Do they inform the authorities of their find or quietly adopt the child as their own and call her Lucy? Any guesses? Obviously not, or we wouldn't have much of a movie, would we? That's the tangled set-up of this maudlin and manipulative film, the stuff that makes pulpy romance novels ever so popular with love-starved female readers. But the director valiantly tries to avoid much of the weepiness and skirts sentimentality whenever he can. To his credit, as a director, he makes a engaging film, well-crafted with lovely production values amid the suds. But as the film's screenwriter, he is less successful. The soap opera mechanics of the plot grinds along, including the appearance of the Little Lucy's real mother, Hannah (a riveting Rachel Weitz), who aches for her lost child as both deal with their guilt in varying ways. There are suds galore in this soap opera. The sunlit waves continuously lap against the shore in Adam Arkapaw's glowing cinematography. The actors' tear-ducts do get a workout with all this melodramatic excess. Alexandre Desplat's moody musical score ebbs and flows like the washing tide. Enough water references...here's just one more: Yet because of Mr. Cianfrance's restrained direction and the acting prowess of its stars, The Light Between Oceans is not all wet. A bit soppy and sappy, I will concur, but the film takes a serious look at misguided love and its consequences in adult terms. The plot itself is a muddle. The first half of the film is slow as Tom and Isabel become soulmates. It tries to build a foundation of the romance between the two lovers, but the characters lack depth and their actions are only the mechanisms to service the weepy narrative machine. It finally gets to the main story as it sets up obvious plot devices along the way. Skillful it's not, as any moviegoer can easily guess the outcome before we embark on the journey. Mr. Cianfrance's screenplay rarely touches on reality with its picturesque view of the shore town, its inhabitants, or the era. But to his credit, he assembles a top-notch cast for his movie. Mr. Fassbender anchors the film as the stoic husband who will sacrifice lovingly for his somewhat loopy wife. He underplays Tom's devotion and it works solidly against Ms. Vikander's much showier role as his emotional spouse. While his character's emotions are repressed and introverted, hers are all on the surface.The actress expertly handles the turmoil and places Isabel's tragic side on full display. (Particularly effective is a gut-wrenching scene involving Isabel's second miscarriage and the dissonant chords of a piano.) Also adding very strong support is the aforementioned Ms. Weitz as Lucy's real mother. She brings the ethic question of motherhood front and center and provides the necessary counterpoint to the moral issue at play. All three actors are superb. The Light Between Oceans doesn't shed much light on its solemn subject, but the film is a well-made diversion. Mr. Cianfrance's vision, as a director, is clear as he pays direct homage to this romance genre, even if his talent as a screenwriter can't avoid its shortcomings. NOTE: Was anyone else bothered by Hannah's German husband's lack of an accent?
