Janus Island is actually part of Antarctica, believe it or not. I mention this because Janus Island is the main setting of The Light Between Oceans and the relatively temperate climate in the film resembles more, perhaps, autumn off the Scottish Coast (TLBO was filmed in New Zealand, FWIW). Perhaps this was that tropical area of Antarctica we’ve heard so much about, or perhaps 1918-1923 was that elusive epoch in history when Antarctica got no snow.
Look, film, you picked Janus Island because of the symbolic value in the dichotomy of the minor Roman god, so you gotta pay the price when the geography is suspect, capisce?
Speaking of anomalies, apparently 1918 predated the Australian accent as well. It wasn’t until “Waltzing Matilda” played at the wedding between lighthouse keeper Tom Sherboune (Michael Fassbender) and Aussie loner Isabel Graysmark (Alicia Vikander) that I clued in to the film being set in the southern hemisphere. This was a healthy half-hour in.
“Psst. This part is supposed to be set in Australia … with Australians. Aren’t there supposed to be accents?”
“Screw it; we’ll give some dialogue to Bryan Brown in the second half of the film. Nobody will know the difference.”
The Great War has ended and Australian soldier Tom has decided to get away from it all by taking a post at a remote lighthouse. Hard to say what the trenches of Europe have shown him, but normally a young single man doesn’t choose to be a hermit. Luckily, the stoic Tom (barely) befriends what appears to be the only single girl within a zip code of his age in the Australian port town where he docks every six months or so. After a year of nothing, Isabel asks to visit his lighthouse on Janus, which in this time and place is tantamount to a proposal. Tom accepts, the only option worthy of moving the plot forward. It’s not like anybody else wants to visit Janus Island.
We can all see this coming, right? Life
is bliss on Janus Island, and then, get this! Like the two-faced god himself, their life changes on a dime when Isabel miscarries. And when a healthy baby lost at sea shows up on the island … Dude, how? Seriously, how? … the baby exactly coinciding with Isabel’s second tragedy, well, I think think we know how this is going to play out over the next two hours. All that’s left is enjoying the players.
The Light Between Oceans managed to squeeze about 60-75 minutes of plot cozily into a two hour, thirteen-minute run-time. Accents and predictability aside, the film has some nice pieces. I almost always enjoy Fassbender, Vikander and Rachel Weisz. And the direction made sure that geography or climate wouldn’t carry the action, as it might in real life. I feel like this is one of those films for folks who just want to be transported to a different time and place where the dilemmas were more simple and concrete. It’s the kind of film that wouldn’t work at all set in modern times and you wouldn’t want it to. Frankly, that isn’t good enough for me.
Infertility is a hard burden for Iz to swallah
When suddenly a child arrives, thank Allah
Keep? Law won’t let her
This would surely go better
Were she a kindly she-ape named Kala
Rated PG-13, 133 Minutes
D: Derek Cianfrance
W: Derek Cianfrance
Genre: What to expect when you’re expecting … to spend your lives in isolation
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: People who enjoy losing themselves to movies
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Technophiles
