ReelBob: ‘The Lighthouse’ ★★★★
By Bob Bloom
Describing the plot of “The Lighthouse” is easy: two men assigned to maintain a lighthouse off a rocky and remote New England island eventually go crazy.
Ah, but if it was only that simple. But director Robert Eggers, who helmed the critically acclaimed “The Witch,” has so much more in mind.
“The Lighthouse” is a funhouse ride of a movie, with things jumping out and startling you at unexpected moments. Eggers, through his superb use of editing and sound, keeps you off-balance and on edge from the opening sequence through the final fade-out.
Eggers made some technical choices that abet the movie’s atmosphere of dread and surprise. He shot the movie in black and white and in a boxlike-aspect ratio that makes you feel as confined and claustrophobic as its two protagonists, played to perfection by Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson.
Eggers, with the help of his actors, creates a hallucinatory atmosphere that makes it difficult to discern what the characters see and hear from what they imagine in their minds.
Dafoe portrays Thomas Wake, an old salt who seems to have stepped off the Pequod after whaling under Captain Ahab. Pattinson is Winslow, his apprentice. He’s a drifter simply earning a wage and dreaming of settling down.
“The Lighthouse” is a mood movie, overflowing with dread and apprehension.
It also is a movie of sound — a foghorn that constantly blares and the cries of seagulls dominate throughout. Their counterpoints of bass rumbling and high-octave screeching create a foreboding environment that foretells misfortune.
Nothing extraordinary really happens in “The Lighthouse.” Dafoe’s Wake sleeps during the day and jealously guards and tends to the lamp at night. During the day, Winslow maintains their living quarters, cleans and takes care of the lighthouse equipment.
And yet, from the outset, you feel as if the island itself is infected with some unseen and malignant spirit whose sole purpose is to drive both men mad.
You go into “The Lighthouse” not knowing what to expect, with Eggers heightening that feeling by playing off your anticipation of what you think lies ahead.
The performances by Dafoe and Pattinson add to the unnerving situation. Dafoe’s Wake is unforgettable. He acts like a petty tyrant, constantly verbally abusing and humiliating Pattinson’s Winslow, threatening to report him to their superiors and deny him his wages.
Wake has saltwater in his veins; he sings old sea chanties and tells tall tales. His voice sounds like a wave crashing onto a jagged shore.
Pattinson’s Winslow is more introspective. He tolerates Wake’s actions, but as his resentment grows and, against his better judgment, he starts to drink, a darker side emerges.
The two men bicker, fight, laugh and dance like an old married couple. One moment they are hurling insults and screaming at each other; the next, they are quietly eating supper and amiably chatting.
Their interaction is the foundation on which the movie rests. It stretches from bold and bombastic to silent and meditative.
The Lighthouse” is an unrelenting and visceral experience. It is one of the best movies of the year. Like “The Witch,” it is an original, memorable and unique event that will leave you unsettled and a bit shell-shocked. It also will whet your appetite for whatever Eggers can conjure for his next offering.
I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My reviews appear at ReelBob (reelbob.com) and Rottentomatoes (www.rottentomatoes.com). I also review Blu-rays and DVDs. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com or on Twitter @ReelBobBloom. Links to my reviews can be found on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
THE LIGHTHOUSE
4 stars out of 4
(R), disturbing images, language, sexual content, nudity, violence