Michael Fassbender is currently waiting to see if he can steal an Oscar away from Leonardo DiCaprio at the Academy Awards this weekend. While the odds of that are looking slim, it appears that he may be making a play for the award next year as well, as the first trailer for his drama The Light Between Oceans has now been released. It looks to be quite the emotional roller coaster, and just the sort of movie that wins awards. Get your first look now.
The Light Between Oceans is a WWI period piece that tells the story of a lighthouse keeper (Michael Fassbender) and his wife (fellow Oscar nominee Alicia Vikander), who find a baby adrift off the coast of Western Australia. As the couple is childless, and has no idea where the child came from, they raise the baby as their own, until a woman comes along who may be the child’s actual family. This will leave the couple with the heartbreaking decision to either return the child to her family, or make the conscious choice to keep them apart. The movie is based on the novel by author M.L. Stedman and is directed by Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine). The trailer comes courtesy of The Guardian.
While any movie that has Academy Award winners or nominees in their cast likes to promote this fact, when all three of your films major roles have seen nominations you know the studio thinks they have something special. Rachel Weisz won an Oscar for The Constant Gardener in 2006. While the odds may be stacked against Michael Fassbender winning the award this year, for his portrayal of Steve Jobs, they’re actually looking decent for Alicia Vikander, who has as good a shot as any in a fairly wide open Best Supporting Actress field for her role in The Danish Girl. Whether or not this movie sees awards buzz, the lead cast is absolutely stellar which virtually guarantees that The Light Between Oceans will have something of redeeming value that will make it worth checking out for many audience members.
While The Light Between Oceans looks to be a solid film, it’s one of these movies that you can already tell is going to absolutely tear your heart out. While I have not read the book, I have to assume that however it turns out will be awful for at least some of the people involved. There's no avoiding it. I’m sure the performances will be top notch, but will they be worth the emotional exhaustion I’ll feel at the end of the story? If you read the book, give me a head's up. A warning. Professional courtesy.
What do you think of The Light Between Oceans? Do we already have a frontrunner for the 2017 Academy Awards? Let us know in the comments.
