The Light Between Oceans

Seen at the Roxy Cinema in Nowra

Cecil says: Best film of 2016. A gripping story from the opening scene through to the final sunset. Be prepared for an emotional rollercoaster if you go to see The Light between Oceans: there is a beautiful romance to kick the film off, with wonderful connections between a hardened World War One veteran (superbly played by Michael Fassbender) and an apparently delicate young thing from a small Western Australian town (Alicia Vikander, who played in The Danish Girl, is wonderful here too); then Dostoevsky themes of Crime and Punishment, with dilemmas thrown in to compare with Sophie’s Choice.

There are so many levels to this film and I guess depending on your own life story it will resonate with key moments of your own journey.

Dilemmas over what to do when a loved one wants one thing and you know it is morally wrong; what to do when you are offered a way out but that would condemn your loved one to prison or even death; how to resolve that prick of conscience that can torment you after the act; how to forgive and not to resent.

The setting of the lighthouse on a small island off the west coast of Australia is utterly beautiful, too, though you can’t help feeling the small town attitudes cross that stretch of sea with their hatred of Germans after the war, their joy at the ‘new baby’, and the pure visibility of every family misfortune and drama that happens in or near the town.

The soundtrack is beautiful – a combination of music composed for the film and old mediaeval work by Tavener. The costumes are wonderful. Even the veggie patch looked a dream, though I had to wonder how they got the vegetables to grow so well in what must have been such salty air…

An all-star cast, with Rachel Weisz, Bryan Brown and Jack Thompson putting in just as polished a performance as the two main characters.

And you know what, I’d see it all again quite happily, just to see what other aspects of my life it may make me think about on a second viewing.

*****

Bea says:  I was in two minds about seeing this film as I knew enough about the storyline to expect it to be sad, and enough to know that the subject matter might be painful for me.  I had not read the book for the same reason.  However, the story – as all good stories are – is actually about larger, more universal truths, like forgiveness, one’s own moral compass, and the importance of relationships, and these truths transcend the immediate storyline.  Still, I did connect with Isabel’s early experience, and left the film thinking – as much as I shared her experience, I do not think I would have done that.  I didn’t think this judgmentally, just in a way that found my own moral compass point, and that was reassuring.  I liked the film’s focus on embracing forgiveness, renouncing resentment, doing what’s right, and remaining connected to people close to you.  These are things that matter in life, and that you can hold on to in the face of loss or grief.

But this is all about the (very strong) storyline – the performances were superb, particularly the wonderful Michael Fassbender as Tom.  I appreciated the direction; it’s rare these days for a film like this not to be overlong and drawn out.  The pace was very good, it lingered long enough to set the scene but not too long.  The settings were incredibly beautiful (Dunedin and North West Tasmania apparently – I can see some trips to those locations in the future!).  It was great to see those old stalwarts Jack Thompson and Bryan Brown in films again.  And as a knitter, the knitwear was great eye candy.

It was actually great escapism as well.  In a week full of the world’s problems, it was great to travel 100 years back in time and be absorbed in the fictional problems of fictional people.  As I said to Cecil on the way home, right now the thought of living on an isolated island lighthouse for 3 years seems rather appealing….

*****

If I stay

Seen at the Lara Cinema in Trabzon, Turkey

Bea says: This ended up being the best choice of a pretty average bunch of standard release movies for the one evening we had free in Trabzon, and we were delighted that our new found travelling friends Jem and Jane (blog link) decided to join us.

For me, If I Stay would have been a very good story and character led depiction of a quiet, focused, sensible teenager navigate the transitional choices of childhood into adulthood – should she reap the reward of her years of hard work on the cello by accepting a place at Julliard rather than moving in with her local boyfriend and attending a local college etc etc.  Primarily but not exclusively told from the perspective of Mia, the teenager, the film does manage to capture her voice and did take me back to that time of my life very successfully actually, when I too was a quiet, focused, sensible young woman with a local boyfriend and decisions to make.  However this aspect of the story only takes up about half of the film narrative.

What didn’t work for me was the other half, which felt a bit like the writer/producers panicked a bit at some point and thought not enough was happening so added loads more narrative to the script.

 Mia‘s “rocker” parents, who can’t quite believe they have created this cuckoo in the nest, were poorly developed – particularly the mother role (name actress playing) – and just too stereotypical for words.  Their characterisation, and the plot in general, suffered from the entire selling premise of the film - that the whole family are in a (spoiler alert) fatal car accident after deciding to go for a drive on a snow day (er – who does that?), and only Mia is left and must decide whether to stay (ie on Earth, alive) or go.

Cue moving bedside scenes with best friend (actually by far the better actress and a shame she didn’t play the lead role), boyfriend and grandfather.  There is a place for a good weepy, but I just got annoyed that this was distracting us from the much more interesting life choices (not just whether to stay or go) that Mia was having to make, and which were kind of just resolved or forgotten when the stay or go decision had to be made.  Sure, this happens sometimes in people’s lives.  But much, much more often people’ lives are set out and defined for many years due to decisions they take as young people – and isn’t that a far more interesting story to tell, really?

Felt like two separate films merged together, rather unsuccessfully for me.

**1/2

Cecil says: I didn’t relate to any of the characters in the way Bea did (even though I was a shy, sensible teenager, I never actually had any major life decisions to make in those years). But I did enjoy this film. Maybe because it was a relief to relax and listen to English after a week or more in a foreign land; maybe it was just nice to let the story flow over me, regardless of whether she stayed or went?

Funnily enough, the parallel narrative that annoyed Bea – the accident and its aftermath – felt the most significant to me, but that’s probably because I only recently had a car accident of my own and know only too well how close it was to a stay or go moment if things had been a split second different. That doesn’t make this a better film or storyline, but it meant I did connect to that aspect of the plot.

Part of the fun of watching films in foreign countries is to people watch and to pick up difference in the cinema-going experience. In Turkey, like in Switzerland, films are clearly cut at a half way point for an interval, though in this case it seemed a totally random point, in the middle of some scene or dialogue. The lights suddenly came on and the film stopped; for a second we all thought the projector had broken. But no, people were off to buy drinks, have a chat, check phones (though most people were doing that throughout the film anyway).

And then without any warning it was back on again. I guess Turks must know how long to take for their loo breaks…

So, yes I did enjoy this film more than Bea. The outcome doesn’t matter really, though our friends thought it was very obviously where the film was heading.

For a weekend movie in your home town or thousands of miles away, I’d say go for it. But don’t expect any Oscars

***

Like Crazy

Bea says:  On a rare day off work, Cecil took me off to the "Senior Screen" at the Odeon, Darlington, where I'm pleased to report I won the raffle (free entry next time) and enjoyed tea and biscuits on the way in. No one seemed to mind that I'm actually not a Senior.

The film that day was one we had never heard of - "Like Crazy"; all we knew was that it was a romcom. It turned out to be a very good one. The film follows the story of two young people who meet at university in LA; but as one is not from the USA, they are forced to continue their relationship long distance, with distinct on and off periods, and a rushed marriage to enable immigration visas.

This film really spoke to me; as someone who lives in a country they were not born in, and I have experienced some of the difficulties the couple in the film run into, some of which anyone in a relationship could relate to (the scene at Camden market made me snort with laughter - I've had that conversation a few times!).

The writing was very good - the story strong and involving, and it is nicely filmed as well. The performances are sound, and the end well done; the end of something, the beginning of something else. One interesting point - despite our so-called enlightened times, it was notable that it was the young woman who gave up her promising career to move to LA, not the other way around.

Definitely worth a see, and a good DVD/Netflix purchase too.
***

Cecil says:  As someone who has had more than my fair share of 'international' relationships, I was gripped by this film from the word go, and could relate to lots of what was going on throughout.

I'm not sure it was appreciated by the Darlington 'seniors', though.  There were grumbles from people around us as the film finished, and I guess if your relationships have always centred around the boy or girl next door or at most from the next town 10 miles away, then many of the issues and exotic romance of the storyline would not mean much.

As Bea says, some of the dialogue and situations were banal, but that was almost the painful beauty of the plot and the script.

Let's face it, relationships with someone on another continent are pretty hard to manage and keep going.  It's not just visas (though my heart sank as they decided not to bother with their visa conditions quite early on in the film); it's the phone calls and texts abroad; the disconnect as you meet again after some long period apart.  All this and more are the story of Like Crazy.

Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones do a great job as the passionate, but trans-atlantic couple. Their profiles on IMDb show that they're pretty busy and will be appearing in lots of films in the coming months, but they've not really made much of an impact so far (though I did actually see Felicity Jones at the premiere of Cheri some three years ago).

I'm not sure what happened to Like Crazy on general release. A good film, well worth seeing. But why did it end up at the Darlington Seniors morning??

***.5