Derek Cianfrance, best known for A Place Beyond the Pines and heartfelt drama Blue Valentine, is on the verge of a return to the silver screen with The Light Between Oceans, and today brings forth a pair of new images for the intimate family feature.
Showcasing Michael Fassbender and Ex Machina up-and-comer Alicia Vikander as doting parents, the stills draw as much attention to the environments as they do the core characters – and there’s a reason for that. Set during the fallout of World War I, The Light Between Oceans finds Fassbender’s battle-worn Janus Rock return home to the land Down Under in order to take up residence as a lighthouse keeper.
Setting sail five miles from the Australian coastline, Rock brings along his loving wife Isabel (Vikander) for the journey, as the pairing set about starting a new chapter in their lives together. But life on their far-flung retreat is anything but smooth sailing, and after dealing with miscarriages and one stillbirth, Fassbender and Vikander’s wannabe parents are left emotionally traumatized.
That all changes when, seemingly out of the blue, a hapless baby washes ashore in a boat carrying the body of a dead man and, judging by today’s photos, it isn’t long before the twosome take the baby girl in as if she was their own.
Also starring Rachel Weisz, The Light Between Oceans is based on the eponymous novel by M.L. Stedman, and while there’s nary a mention of a release date for Cianfrance’s latest, we expect it to make its bow during 2016’s festival circuit – Cannes certainly seems the most likely.
After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.
Tom, who keeps meticulous records and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel insists the baby is a “gift from God,” and against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.
