'The Lighthouse' A Review

The Lighthouse is a black and white surreal horror film about two lighthouse keepers("wickies") off the coast of New England around the turn of the century. The film opens as Ephraim Winslow(Robert Pattinson) and Thomas Wake(Willem Dafoe) are dropped off for the four week shift. After the mundanity of their tasks sets in madness and/or supernatural forces intervene.

Dafoe gives an absolutely thrilling and totally authentic performance as the gravely voiced wickie spouting at times captivating, other times incomprehensible, archaic dialect. He's able to create a fully formed and compelling character with very little back story or context, he oscillates effortlessly from aggression to pathos to wry and gentle humor. His performance pairs well with the various design elements, almost impressionistic, musical rather than linear. One of the best performances of the year with a couple stand out almost Shakespearean monologues that crescendo beautifully. Pattinson doesn't skimp on effort(and maybe that's the problem) but is unable to match the mercurial grace of Dafoe, gasping and mincing and telegraphing choices to the point it is very clear that this is Robert Pattinson the actor Acting, the character is almost totally lost in all his stumbling exertions. The most egregious example of this is at the beginning while Ephraim is going about his work, shoveling coal and hauling supplies, on an island that can't be longer than 100 feet, he groans and grunts and gasps to a baffling degree. Makes you wonder if the director or Pattinson himself has ever really done any manual labor to speak of so over-wrought are these relatively simple and not terribly strenuous tasks.

Visually the film is rich, stark, and bleakly beautiful. The diagetic thrumming fog horn and the eerie score help create this desperate, otherworldly, claustrophobic mood which is effectively immersive if not necessarily pleasant. There are a series of abstract/surreal images, perhaps hallucinations or dreams or mystical visions, that are periodically intercut that also enhance the tone.

The narrative is full of ideas, there are references and implications to all kinds of explanations to the mostly vague sometimes intelligible things happening and being discussed on screen. There is certainly ambition and stunning craft at work but the film goes on for a little too long for it to totally pull-off it's bizarre tight-wire act of opaque plotting. By the time the climax occurs we know exactly what's coming and we don't wonder why, at that point we don't particularly care. Not a perfect movie but quite a wild ride.

See It.