Alicia Vikander

It’s always difficult to pinpoint just where such a well-made movie as Derek Cianfrance’s The Light Between Oceans falls short—why the hammer narrowly misses the nail and lands soundly on the thumb instead. The Light Between Oceans gives us everything we could ask for in a high-drama period romance, except for some spoon-fed melodrama that numbs the movie. It’s a shame, since Light’s complex content promised us so much more.