Tom Sherbourne gets a job as a lighthouse keeper. He meets a beautiful woman named Isabel Graysmark. They get to know each other and write to each other across the ocean. They get married and she moves in with him at the lighthouse. They try to start a family, but after they try to make a baby, Isabel has a miscarriage. Isabel wants a child badly and feels all hope is lost. Tom sees a boat wash up on shore from the lighthouse and informs Isabel. They rush down and find a baby inside the boat next to the body of a dead man.
Tom has to report it, but Isabel stops him and wants them to know that the child is theirs. She begs Tom and he goes along with it. Tom buries the dead body and he and Isabel raise their new daughter, Lucy for the next four years. One day they wait for the church open so Lucy can be baptized. Tom notices a woman crying next to a tombstone. He looks to see who’s grave it is. Tom is shocked to find out that he now knows who Lucy’s family really is. The woman’s name is Hannah and she believes her daughter is dead, but Tom, without revealing his identity, leaves her a message that she is still alive.
Isabel finds out the truth when she meets Hannah and her sister tells her that Hannah’s daughter was lost at sea. Tom is letting the guilt get to him so he turns himself in and Lucy is taken away from Isabel.
Lucy wants Isabel believing she is her real mother. Lucy goes missing and is found next to a beach. She was trying to find the lighthouse. Hannah feels Lucy won’t ever accept her as a mother knowing that she has lost her to Isabel. Hannah goes to Isabel to inform her that she will give Lucy to her. Isabel doesn’t know what to say. She reads the note Tom wrote and admits the fact the baby is Hannah's. She runs to Tom before he is about to go to jail and speaks out the truth that she is responsible and made her husband go along with it. They both have to spend some time in jail. Lucy begins to show a liking to Hannah.
In the year 1950, Isabel is on her death bed asking Tom if God can forgive her and he believes he already has. A visiter shows up to see Tom. It is Lucy all grown up and with her baby boy. Tom gives her a note that Isabel wrote to her before she died saying how much she loves her.
Blaine: “The Light Between Oceans” starts off as a romance showing these two characters when they first meet and how close they become. After that they get married it becomes dramatic seeing Isabel have the two miscarriages. When she looks at the crosses of her unborn babies while laying on the ground, she feels all hope is lost for her. I didn’t think much of Michael Fassbender’s performance in the beginning, but his character, Tom was in a war and knowing what war does to damage a person for seeing so many deaths and he feels a piece of him has died.
Alicia’s character, Isabel, shows him that there is still life inside him somewhere or as she calls it a light. After Tom looks at the tombstone and discovers who Lucy’s real family is, Michael shows a shocking look in his eyes and I was most impressed with that moment out of Michael’s performance through the whole movie. Michael does sort of show a romantic side to this character and someone who feels lost for when you first meet him and when he’s between the line of doing the right thing and doing what makes his wife happy.
Alicia starts off happy at the beginning and it felt like she was glowing and I think that’s because Michael’s character, Tom finds her beautiful. Then later in the film, she shows a lot of drama after they lose the babies. Alicia shows how desperate Isabel wants to keep the baby. Tom feels the right thing to do after they find the baby is to report it, but his wife wants the baby and is desperate to have a child and he looks at her and feels she deserves to be happy. It made me ask myself what is going to happen?
Tom has a conscience and it’s telling him to give Lucy back to Hannah, but he also loves his wife too much so he tells the police that it was all his doing and that he forced Isabel to go along with it.
Isabel doesn’t forgive Tom at first and doesn’t speak to him after having Lucy taken away from her, but he has a conscience but he still felt badly for his wife for having to give Lucy back to her real mother. He’s doing what he believes is right. Plus Tom took the blame so Isabel could be spared even though she’s the one who made him go along with it and that he was under her spell.
I was getting a little angry when the police took Lucy away from Isabel and giving her back to Hannah. I guess you could say I don’t like Hannah that much. I did ask myself what is going to happen now. Things were getting very serious and it made me wish that Tom didn’t tell Hannah and just kept Lucy. Lucy keeps wanting to go back to Isabel. Is Hannah going to let Isabel keep her? And then softly after Hannah went to see Isabel to tell her that she will give Lucy to her.
Isabel’s conscience finally speaks to her and she realizes her husband has done so much for her even by taking full responsibility for their crime. And she tells the truth and I’m glad she let it out. I was asking how long will she keep her mouth shut while feeling sorry for herself?
Adult Lucy, I believe wants Tom to be her son’s grandfather, even though he is not directly related to them. Still he’s like family because he along with his wife raised Lucy for four years and showed love for her. And with Isabel gone Tom needs some company. I’m glad it has a happy ending.
My rating on “The Light Between Oceans” is four and a half out of five stars.
