Trailer for The Light Between Oceans Starring Fassbender-Vikander Just Dropped!

Fans of the heartbreaking novel The Light Between Oceans have something to celebrate today– the trailer of the upcoming film adaptation has finally appeared along with an official release date.

M.L. Stedman’s novel, published in 2012, tells the story of lighthouse-keeper Tom Sherbourne and his wife Isabel, whose lives are forever changed when a small boat washes up on shore. They find a dead man and a baby inside the boat, and their decision to raise the baby as their own yields challenging and tragic repercussions. Set on a remote island off the coast of Western Australia in the 1920s, the novel is an imagery-laden hymn of tragedy, decency, and moral enigmas in a postwar world that has lost so much.

When casting announcements first appeared for this film, I was both pleased and puzzled. On the one hand, the casting of Alicia Vikander as sharp, spirited Isabel seemed like a natural choice. Vikander is a star on the rise that has proven, in many different kinds of movies, that there is simply nothing she cannot do. From her brief, but memorable performance as bubbly kid-sister Kitty in Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina, to her role as the dignified but emotionally trapped Queen Caroline Mathilde in A Royal Affair, to the undaunted intelligence and emotional depth that she brought to her role as celebrated World War I memoirist Vera Brittain in Testament of Youth, to her most recent turn as troubled Gerda Wegener in The Danish Girl, Vikander has the sensitivity and skill to play a passionate and pained character whose world is turned upside down repeatedly in the span of only a few years.

Then there’s Michael Fassbender as Tom, the responsible World War I vet who follows rules with military precision. Here’s the thing: I love Michael Fassbender. He is a brilliant, purposeful actor whose choice in roles is as shrewd as it is fascinating. Like most people, I first saw him in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds as the dashing actor-turned-officer-turned-spy Lt. Archie Hicox. He was a perfectly brooding and sexy Rochester in Cary Fukunaga’s gothic Jane Eyre, and he brought a new meaning to physical performance in his emaciated portrayal of Irish hunger-striker Bobby Sands in Steve McQueen’s Hunger. His Oscar-nominated portrayal of the darkly complex sinner-slaveholder Edwin Epps in 12 Years a Slave (again with Steve McQueen) was chillingly pitch-perfect. The guy can do a lot. But Fassbender as Tom? I simply do not buy it. Fassbender excels at being dark, complex, and unexpected. Tom Sherbourne, on the other hand, possesses a moral nobility that contrasts with Fassbender’s artful ambiguity. To be fair, I have a history of being wrong about my criticism of casting choices– in my recent plug for War and Peace, for example, I voiced my skepticism at having Paul Dano head the cast as Pierre. Well, it turns out that Paul Dano was one of the best parts of the series. So, it is entirely possible that Fassbender will prove me wrong. In fact, I hope he does.

Apart from the casting, there is a lot to be hopeful about with this film. The director Derek Cianfrance‘s work– such as the controversial Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines— is edgy and unpolished, so it will be interesting to see what he does with this story. Additionally, the inclusion of the always-elegant Rachel Weisz as Hannah Roennfeldt, a woman who lost her infant daughter to the sea, is exciting and will further elevate an already powerhouse cast.

Unfortunately, there are still lots of questions surrounding this adaptation. Filming wrapped over a year ago, and critics and fans of the novel have been anxiously awaiting a first look. Why did it take so long for Disney (who will distribute the Dreamworks film) to announce a release date and launch the trailer? A release date (limited or wide?) on September 2, 2016, does not bode well for The Light Between Oceans‘ chances for awards. True, films released in the fall are increasingly becoming competitive during awards season; but an early September release still seems a bit premature for serious award contention. Moreover, the admittedly beautiful trailer is undercut somewhat by the fact that the actors’ accents are all over the map– the accents seem to be from everywhere except Australia. Perhaps I am being nit-picky, but this seems like it could be a huge distraction, especially for fans in M.L. Stedman’s native Australia.

All of these issues do not necessarily mean anything until we see the film. Given the rich source material, the talent of the cast, the chops of the director, and the beautiful look of the trailer, I sincerely hope that these question marks are misleading and that Cianfrance and company have put together a truly remarkable film. After all, this touching novel deserves a strong adaptation.