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The Light Between Oceans

Actors rescue sappy saga

A lighthouse keeper and his wife in post-WWI Australia rescue a newborn baby from a rowboat. They’ve already suffered two miscarriages, and decide to keep the child and pass it off as their own, leading to predictably disastrous consequences. Derek Cianfrance’s (Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond the Pines) film is more than a little melodramatic and manipulative, but it’s also sincere and gorgeously shot. And if you give them time, Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander (and Rachel Weisz) transcend the story’s inherent sermonizing to explore their characters’ selfishness and moral obligations, and make it worth a look. (133 min)