On paper, a creative partnership between Michael Fassbender, the so-hot-right-now Alicia Vikander and Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance reads like a match made in cinematic heaven, and the quaint, heart-wrenching first trailer for The Light Between Oceans showcases an early Oscar contender in the making.
Arguably two of the hottest actors working today, Fassbender and Vikander lead the picture as Tom and Isabel, respectively, a man and a woman desperate to cement their love for one another with a child. But after a series of miscarriages and tragic stillbirths, all hope seems lost. That is, until a boat carrying a dead man and a vulnerable baby girl washes up on shore.
Deciding to raise her as their own, Tom and Isabel go on to become surrogate parents, doting over the child as though she was a miracle. However, complications arise when the couple discover that their daughter’s true mother may still be alive.
Based on the acclaimed and tragic novel by ML Stedman, here’s an overview of The Light Between Oceans:
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.
Now relocated to an awards-friendly release date in the fall, Derek Cianfrance’s The Light Between Oceans will finally make its bow on September 2 in North America. Fassbender and Vikander, the busy bees that they are, will be on our screens long before that though. The former is set to reprise his role as Magneto for mutant sequel X-Men: Apocalypse, while Vikander is one of the many newcomers starring in Paul Greengrass’ Bourne 5.
