The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

If you like your films excessively melodramatic, overwhelmingly devastating and terribly insistent on driving constant feelings of sadness and anguish, then Derek Cianfrance’s The Light Between Oceans is for you. Adapted from the pages of the M.L Steadman’s novel of the same name, the air is thick and heavy throughout most of the minutes which, although filled with pretty visuals and is skilfully anchored by a couple of committed performances, proves to be a little too gloomy to bear.

The story is set in 1918 and is centred on Tom Sherbourne (Fassbender in his element); a quiet WWI veteran who is still having trouble in coping with the psychological aftermath of war. In order to get out of his own head, Tom decides to take a job as a lighthouse keeper on a beautiful remote island in Australia.

However, his days of solitude are short-lived as he soon meets, falls for and marries the beautiful daughter of his boss, Isabel Graysmark (Vikander). However, their idyllic marriage is soon struck by grief when Isabel endures two miscarriages, causing the couple to start believing that they will never bear any children. However, when a small boat washes up on their shores after a violent storm with a dead man and a crying baby inside, the couple decides to take fate in their own hands and unofficially adopt the child and pass it as their own, but soon find themselves dealing with consequences they never foresaw.

Not unlike 2010’s terribly underrated Blue Valentine and 2012’s The Place Beyond the Pines, a couple of things stand out from Cianfrance’s latest cinematic venture, with the first being  the cinematography – courtesy of True Detective’s Adam Arkpaw -and the other being the performances.  Capturing the scenic shots of coastal Australia with almost a dream-like tone, the visuals are successful in establishing moods of both isolation and hope, before turning its attention to the notions of loss and grief.

Also helping what is largely a flimsy script are two great performances from Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander and her real-life partner, Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender, whose on-screen chemistry works wonders for the film. Even when the story dives headfirst into more soap-opera-like territory, both manage to stay on top of their game.

With the exception of a relatively intriguing beginning, the entire story feels like a slightly better photographed adaptation of a Daniel Steel novel with Cianfrance’s script failing to capture the essence of the book. The idea of bringing such close focus on heartbreak and loss proves a little challenging and for such an intimate movie, the story feels strangely soulless and detached. There are times when the film manages to strike the right cord, but it is so taken by its own moments of sorrow that it languishes in self-pity a little too often.