The Light Between Oceans (2016)

Film adaptation of the generally well received 2012 novel of the same name by Australian writer M. L. Stedman. The Light Between Oceans concerns Tom Sherbourne (Michael Fassbender) a traumatized veteran of the First World War who in the 1920's becomes the light house keeper on an isolated island, falls in a love and marries a girl named Isabel (Alicia Vikander) whose courtship occurs largely through letters, and takes her to live with him on the island. Shortly after Isabel's second miscarriage the couple rescue a baby girl they find in a small boat floating near the island in the company of her dead father. Rather then report this, and after much pleading from his wife, Tom agrees to pass the child off as their own. Some months later while visiting the mainland and Isabel's family to have baby Lucy christened, Tom spots a woman in mourning in the church yard cemetery (Rachel Weisz) and from the date and inscription on the tombstone she was crying at quickly puts together that Lucy is actually her baby. This puts Tom in a pretty obvious moral quandary and it is an agonizing one. This a hole in the pit of your stomach movie, and I will confess that I cried a little in the theater. Thought slow to get going, and entering Lifetime movie territory by way of style of R. F. Delderfield, this is an effective 'woman's weepy' of the old school, anchored by three strong lead performances. Not the kind of film I would usually go out of my way to see, but my mother loved the book and wanted me to get to know the story, and I'm glad I did. ***1/2