From Page to Screen: The Light Between Oceans

M.L. Stedman’s beautiful and heartbreaking debut novel The Light Between Ocean was a slow burn for me. When I started it, I was a little skeptical, unsure of the characters and the world they inhabited. Then slowly, it drew me in like a romance. By the last pages, that was it: I was head over heels for it and enthusiastically recommending it to anyone looking to be swept away.

The story centers on Tom Shelbourne, a World War I vet whose war experience has made him want to shake off humanity for a while and live in peace and solitude. (Can’t say I blame him.) So he takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on a remote island off the coast of Western Australia. The island even has an appropriately atmospheric name: Janus Rock. During his rare visits to the town on shore, he finds a vivacious and passionate young wife (Isabel) who injects him and his island with the vitality he lost in the trenches. And so the island is transformed into their private, happy nest. But, though they are devoted to each other, there is one thing Tom can’t give Isabel: a baby. One day, all that changes: a row boat washes up on their secluded island with a dead man and a wailing infant. Isabel, desperate for motherhood, insists that they raise the baby as their own, and Tom reluctantly agrees.

Without giving away any spoilers, here’s what else I can say about the novel: it is far from cliché and does a singular job exploring the moral dilemmas and ramifications in a world that has blown itself apart. Stedman masterfully gives a balanced telling of the story, making us sympathize with both the Shelbournes and the devastated family who lost their baby to the sea.

When it was announced that there would be a Hollywood adaptation of this novel, I was thrilled—especially after Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, and Rachel Weisz were cast as leads. When the trailer dropped this past winter, I even wrote about how excited I was.

So, did the film live up to the book?

In short, if you loved the book, you’ll enjoy the film. And if you haven’t read the book, no worries: director Derek Cianfrance brings out the emotionalism of the story, so you’re guaranteed to be swept away. There is an especially memorable, beautifully executed sequence at the beginning of the film where we get little snippets of Tom and Isabel’s new life together on Janus Rock. The intimate, heartwarming scenes are utterly convincing, and I dare you not to feel all warm and fuzzy inside when you watch them. There is an old-fashioned sensibility to this film, and that made it easy to love. (Example: romance comes not from sexual consummation, but from lazy Golden Hours spent laughing together; true intimacy is shaving your husband’s beard with a straight-edged razor. Seriously– that’s trust, people.) (Of course, it’s easy to do romance well on screen when your two leads are famously falling in love off screen.)

Special attention needs to go to Alicia Vikander. Let’s call a spade a spade: Vikander is one of the best actresses of her generation, and she’s had an uncommonly good year. Fresh off her winning performances in The Danish Girl, Ex Machina, and Testament of Youth (please see this film), Vikander brings nuance, warmth, and fierceness to the role of Isabel. In my opinion, she’s the most interesting character in the novel; and I’m glad Isabel had a worthy interpreter in Vikander.

It’s worth noting there has been a great deal of criticism surrounding this film. Going against protocol, negative early reviews were published days before the film’s official debut at the Venice Film Festival. Perhaps taking a cue from the early reviews, critics then piled negative reviews onto the film, and this intervention quite possibly cost the film millions. (Cianfrance’s wife voiced her outrage at the critiques here: she convincingly points out the gendered nature of the reviews and laments that romantic films are a dying breed.)

Were the critiques fair? No way. In fact, many of the major reviews—like Entertainment Weekly and Los Angeles Times—curiously claim the film is emotionally manipulative. Um, have they seen any film ever made? All pieces of fiction (and arguably non-fiction) are, at their core, manipulative. So to dismiss a film for playing the audience’s emotions like a violin isn’t just an unfair critique; it’s a straight-up laughable one.

That’s not to say that the film isn’t without its flaws. As an ardent admirer of the novel, I was disappointed that the story was streamlined and a lot of the fat was trimmed off. The problem? Fat adds flavor. Oh well—such is the problem of literally every novel adapted to the screen or stage. More seriously, I can’t help but feel that Michael Fassbender was slightly miscast. Don’t get me wrong: I’m a huge Fassbender fan. But, he just wasn’t right for the morally righteous Tom. Moreover, the Australian accents were all over the place—did they not have a dialect coach on set?

But these criticisms are relatively minor. Though Fassbender was miscast, his chief job is to fall in love with Alicia Vikander and act without speaking—so, while I would have preferred a different actor in the role, he still managed to do well with it. The score was beautiful. The scenery and cinematography were breathtaking. (They filmed the Janus Rock scenes on a peninsula in New Zealand. Alicia Vikander has a fun story about the first time she saw the view.) Overall, I felt that this was an appropriate, well done adaptation of a beloved book. It wasn’t perfect, but I could never expect any film to measure up to a book that burrowed into my heart.

Photo Credit: Davi Russo/DreamWorks SKG Pictures