THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS | FAMILY MOVIE REVIEW INFORMATION FOR PARENTS AND KIDS

"THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS"
(2016) (Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander) (PG-13)

QUICK TAKE:: Drama: A post-WWI lighthouse keeper and his wife, who've just suffered through their second miscarriage, rescue a baby from the sea and raise it as their own, all while the girl's mother grieves over her lost child and husband.

PLOT:

It's 1918 and after serving four years in WWI, Tom Sherbourne (MICHAEL FASSBENDER) would like a little peace and solitude. Accordingly, he takes a temporary job as the lighthouse keeper at Janus Rock, a remote island off the coast of Australia that's so removed from civilization that the last keeper went crazy. Before heading off for his solitary job, he's treated to dinner by some locals on the mainland and that's where he meets Isabel Graysmark (ALICIA VIKANDER). She's a young woman who's instantly smitten with him, and the two become steady pen pals. That eventually leads to romance, marriage, and her moving to the island with him.

But two miscarriages later, she's so distraught that when a rowboat drifts by with a dead man and crying baby inside, she pleads for Tom to allow them to keep the child and raise it as their own. Being a rule follower and moral man, he's reluctant, but seeing the joy the child brings to his wife, he eventually gives in and agrees.

Things become more complicated when the family returns to the mainland to visit Isabel's family. It's then that Tom spots Hannah Roennfeldt (RACHEL WEISZ) crying near a grave, and after she leaves he views the headstone, only to realize she's the child's mother. He eventually learns that she was disinherited from the estate of her wealthy father, Septimus Potts (BRYAN BROWN), for marrying a German man, Frank (LEON FORD) who -- fearful for his life and that of their child at the hands of anti-German locals -- fled into the sea never to be seen again.

From that point on, Tom finds himself torn about what to do regarding his young daughter, Lucy (FLORENCE CLERY), and whether he and Isabel should come clean about what's transpired.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?: They might if the story sounds compelling or if they're fans of someone in the cast. Otherwise, it doesn't seem that likely.

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG-13: For thematic material and some sexual content.

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