Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander make a beautiful couple in the old school melodrama “The Light Between Oceans.” Fassbender begins the story as a World War I veteran stumbling into civilian life, filled with angst from the Great War. He takes a fill-in job as a lighthouse keeper on an isolated island. He notices a beautiful village girl played by Alicia Vikander, and they marry, beginning their life together on his now-permanent assignment on the island. Vikander has a pair of miscarriages and falls into a deep depression, until one day, a boat washes ashore. The boat carries a dead adult and a live baby. Vikander pleads with her husband for permission to keep the child: Fassbender reluctantly agrees. The secret unravels in a plot twist involving Rachel Weisz. “The Light Between Oceans” takes its sweet time: It feels about a half hour too long. But it looks beautiful, and the actors look beautiful and they play this tale out to an equally beautiful sound track. Does it deliver what it promises? Old school melodrama. Is it entertaining? Long and slow, but beautiful. Is it worth the price of admission? A good end-of-summer story.
