Overview
A film with the pedigree that features the director of The Witch, Robert Eggers and actors Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson should make for an worthy experience. However, superb performances can't save The Lighthouse from being tiresome, uninteresting and gimmicky. It's an art film that is too goofy to make its point, and not goofy enough that it's funny.
Plot
When two sailors are dropped on an isolated island with a lighthouse, it’s not impossible to understand what The Lighthouse is going for. Slowly and predictably the two men start to show signs of madness but it’s only at its tipping point that the two truly lose it. Marketed as a horror movie, there is nothing very scary. Marketed as a thriller and there is nothing very thrilling. Numerous strange things happens without any explanation, but they aren’t the type of things that make you delve deeper into thought or look for allegory, instead these things happen for only to show the descent into crazy, which only loosely ties back to anything. Maybe this is the point, but it’s not clever. It’s only natural to expect the quality and the tone of The Witch, a phenomenal film that is truly a horror film without constant frights. The unnerved sense of expectation found in The Witch is lost in The Lighthouse.
Cinematography
A lighthouse off the northeast coast in the late 19th century could have been cause for some beautiful cinematography but Eggers cuts the nuts off his film by not just making it black and white, which can still produce astonishing cinematography but changes the aspect ratio to 1.19:1, which to the common eye seems like an old television size. Seemingly this was done to create a claustrophobic feel. It does not. It does nothing but cheapen the look of the film. In fact, the black and white is the only thing that prevents it from feeling entirely cheap. The aspect ration doesn’t add to the experience of the film at all and it’s mostly forgettable. The cloudy, stormy days on the island would have benefited from more contrast and instead of trying to force a claustrophobic feeling it could have focused on the isolation of the island.
Performance
The saving grace of The Lighthouse are the two performances from Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson. They are rough around the edges, dirty, ugly, flawed, physical and have incredible time period accents. The relationship between these two is the crux of the movie, obviously, bu their interactions are primarily limited to meal time. The best scenes in the movie come from these dinner table meals followed by drinks…a lot of drinks. These scenes, providing character depth and exposition are the only memorable scenes and the only time anything is brought to light. The one contemplation is driven here; were they always this crazy all along?
The Lighthouse Review Reflection
The Lighthouse is a disappointing followup to The Witch. While directors should be able to test their skills in other genres, this seems to be one that doesn’t work for Robert Eggers. Gimmicks such as the black and white motif and the square aspect ratio add nothing to the experience. These gimmicks are the proverbial lipstick on a pig.
