MovieChat Forums > The Light Between Oceans (2016) Discussion > Still trying to figure out what's wrong ...

Still trying to figure out what's wrong with this film


Thought it was a finely tuned adaptation.

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I want to watch this movie so badly. They said it was going to be on theaters here on September 8th but it did not happen and I do not know when I will be able to see it. I still can not understand why we were not able to watch this movie here and why IMDB was wrong.

I read the book a long time ago, and I loved it. I am now very anxious because I read all these comments and reviews and have to figure out why some people did not like it at all and some seem to love it. It seems to follow the book very closely, and all the performances were good. Maybe they expected too much?


"...It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

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I'm venturing to assume the negative reviews are from folks that aren't familiar with the book before the film was even announced. Their loss. If anything, this film improves upon the book thematically and situational. Even though this did get a worldwide release it hasn't lasted in theaters for that long either. Just more poor marketing. I saw it yesterday here in Pennsylvania and the theater was packed.

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Fassbender? Wooden? XD Ever heard of a reserved performance? Well, he's mostly cast as those types so we rarely see him in a role like the one he had in Jonah Hex (the only highlight of that film).

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maybe not wooden (he is very lucky to have Blue eyes) but still very cold!

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I call that subtlety.

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Never said I was a fanboy. I just thought it was hilarious that you think he is wooden.

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There's always Ryan Gosling. Wait.

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What bothered me in his performance was his clenched jaw. It's very annoying and he had that all the time in this film. The rest of the cast was pretty good.

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Really? I'm not a fan of Fassbender's Jobs by any means, he was totally miscast, but his Tom was very annoying to me. Not only in technical aspects (his clenched jaw was everywhere) but also because his character was stupid. I felt no sympahty for neither of them, maybe at the beginning only. What they did is impossible to agree with.

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Macbeth had a bad script. Kurzel did an amazing work directing it, Arkapaw's cinematography was brilliant and the cast was amazing but screenplay killed it. Lady M was very underused in it, as much as Kurzel gave opportunities for Cotillard to steal the show (and she did IMO), a few changes in the original story were a bit weird too. Fassbender was very good in it, much better than his Jobs for instance. But not his best work for sure.

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i think Fassbender was really bad in Macbeth. and terrible in steve jobs.

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Oh, I liked his performance. The issue with the film was the crap script. I agree about Jobs. He was extremely overrated in it, he didn't deserve a nomination. Neither did Redmayne.

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i wanted to watch this for Rachel and Alicia but now prefer to read the book.

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Everyone is fantastic in it. The film's greatest strength if you ask me.

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Haven't read the book. Didn't know anything about the movie going into it. Just saw it at a 2nd run theater:

I give the movie a solid B+. I thought the performances were great, especially Fassbender. 2/3 of the way through, I was ready to give it an A+. However,I thought it stumbled in the final act. Main reasons:

1. In hindsight, the movie's content was always dangerously close to being melodramatic and soapy Lifetime type material. However, I didn't feel like this was the case until it actually crossed that line by presenting "yet another" moral dilemma for a character, which felt really contrived. And in doing so made the previous moral dilemmas and plot developments feel contrived and thus weaker. (Spoiler: The "I'll give the kid back to you after you testify against your husband" moral dilemma is what I'm referring to.)

2. The female lead, Fassbender's wife, disappeared for what felt like at least a half hour. Like this was one of the two characters I was invested in, and then the script couldn't think of anything to do with her.

3. The ending was weak. I'm not sure what the best way to end the movie would've been, but that wasn't it. I felt like the daughter herself at that point wasn't important. The ending should've focused on the couple and how they were able to rebuild and what that looked like. Instead, they killed the wife off, but she had this letter waiting around hoping the daughter shows up... so it was like she learned nothing and didn't grow in any way from the whole ordeal, and neither did he


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Everything. It's a total washout. Made me waste 2+ hours of my life. Unforgivable.

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Man's trash is another man's treasure.

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How did it MAKE you waste 2 hours of your life? You CHOSE to watch it and could have stopped watching it at any time.

"This is a revolution of the mind." (Rebecca Dearborn)

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