SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Hayleigh Joseph This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

Neil Welch Tom Sherbourne, traumatised on the western front, takes a job as lighthouse keeper on an island off a remote part of the Australian coast. Local young woman Isabel marries him, joins him on his island, but has two miscarriages. Immediately after the second, a dinghy containing a dead man and a live baby washes up on the lighthouse island: Isabel persuades Tom not to report it and to pass off the baby as their own, so he buries the body. At the baby's christening back on the mainland he encounters the child's real mother and finds himself vastly conflicted.I usually start by considering the things I liked about a film: here I have to start with what I didn't like and, what I disliked most was the story. There is an expression in British theatre called "plonking" - when the script introduces an element which is obviously solely for the purpose of justifying something which will happen later, it has been "plonked" down in front of the audience. This story is full of plonks. The lighthouse being on an island, the dinghy arriving at the same time as the second miscarriage, the baby's father being German, the mother being at the church at the same time as the christening, the rattle a) being seen by a visitor to the island and b) being small enough to fit in an envelope, her father being wealthy enough to fund a reward about the rattle - all these, and others, are clumsy mechanisms which exist only in order to fit the story together. The reasons for them existing are so obvious that the story appears gracelessly cobbled together rather than organically grown.Added to which, the two main characters, their motivations and actions, are hugely improbable. It may be that the novel does a better job of filling in detail here, but it seems that (for instance) Isabel falls in love with Tom because he took her for a picnic and has an air of melancholy about him. Well, I suppose people have got married for less, but still... These two individuals are more story contrivance than characters.The pacing is all wrong, too. Starting out as a romance, it turns out that it is no such thing: the first hour is all set-up for the actual drama of the second half, and could - and should - have been trimmed.Turning to more positive aspects, Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander are both wonderful actors, and they do an exemplary job - better than the story deserves - of fleshing out these two cardboard cut-outs into living, breathing, halfway-credible people. Rachel Weisz is adequate as the mother.The look of the film is good: the desolate beauty of the isolated lighthouse island is beautifully photographed, and the direction is broadly good, too, albeit the pacing issues can be laid at the feet of writer/director Derek Cianfrance.The mature ladies in the audience who were there because they'd read the book all snuffled dutifully at the end of two hours of blatant emotional manipulation: I fear I remained resolutely unmoved.Looking on the bright side, Fassbender and Vikander became an Item during the filming: think on that as your attention wanders.

Ian It's slow-paced although much of the content is interesting enough to keep you watching. A second hand on the tiller would have improved the script and direction - yes writer/director again, although he doesn't do a bad job and it is based on a book - but it's worth persevering with if you like a weepie drama.It's a fascinating look at moral choices and the decisions people make. In this case, the decisions are made by the various story members but you might want to ask yourself what you'd do in the same situation.The two leads a superb - Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander - and the scenery is wonderful and atmospheric.Not a movie I'd watch again and you have to like a particular type of movie to enjoy it but give it a whirl and see what you think.

blancastarolivera An absolutely wonderful movie with an incredible Love story and with lessons about the value of Life and of abandoning any resentment. A little too dramatic at the beginning but of course it can represent a real situation, which makes everyone understand without judging the roles. Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender outweigh any expectations as to quality of interpretation. Photography, music, ... A work of Art with spiritual and personal inspirations.

nitinarora-91451 I really loved the entire story. It touched my heart.The main character Tom showed what is life all about. The moment he came to know about the truth of whom the child belong to, he immediately responded in his best capable ways even in such an emotionally difficult situation. That needs lot of courage.Definetly life of Tom and his wife was worse in the sense they have to go through all this. They were put into helpless situations. Definetly rest of their lives they were living through immense pain and could never have a happy time. It looks like bad things happened to good people.Definetly God wanted that child to be given protection and safely sent back to the original mother. Only a couple like Tom and his wife were capable of that. God knowing their greatness he arranged them to be there at that time. And at the end the child was very grateful for that. Definelty God will be himself obliged and grateful to Tom and his wife for all their thankless life to become an instrument in the ultimate plan of the Lord. Only for such persons to whom God becomes sold out.