Artistic Triumph, But Still Lacking Something: The Lighthouse

I was so enamored with The Witch that I didn't ask a whole lot of questions before going swiftly to see The Lighthouse - it's important to me to support artists and directors with a vision I can really get behind.

But that being said, I was not blown away by this film. Don't get me wrong - it's a tremendous artistic effort, and there are lots of techical/filmmaking qualities to this movie that are flawless. To shoot in black and white is a bold choice, one that might suggest someone trying too hard, but combined with the sharp lighting, I can't imagine that the film would have held the same intensity if it had been in color. The light and shadow is so important to this film, and that was absolutely spot on. As was the sound/editing and the acting. Those are the things that really keep you watching.

So Robert Eggers is a master of his craft, in a literal sense. But the storytelling is where this failed for me. The premise of weird happenings in seaside isolation is well and good, but the story went too bizarro for me, and while I did have a visceral reaction to the film as I watched it, I can't say that the narrative was compelling. And the weaving of reality/unreality in this film did not have the same strong cohesion and restraint that The Witch had, and even though I'm sure this is exactly what the director intended, the result was something that felt more scattershot. When I give up trying to understand what I'm seeing, then you've lost a bit of my attention, and that's unfortunately what happened here as the story unraveled.

Not every film can be perfectly perfect, and this won't put me off Eggers altogether. It's just a bit disappointing, is all.

K. Rating: 3.5/5