From Robert Eggers, the visionary filmmaker behind modern horror masterpiece The Witch, comes this hypnotic and hallucinatory tale of two lighthouse keepers on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.Read more
Pattinson and Dafoe shine in ‘The Lighthouse’
LINDSEY BAHR - Associated Press
(Three stars out of four)
Enter ”The aLighthouse” at your own risk.
This is a stark, moody, surreal and prolonged descent into seaside madness that will surely not be for everyone. But those who do choose to go on this black-and-white journey with Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe will ultimately find it a rewarding one, even if the blaring fog horn rings in your ears for days to come. Director Robert Eggers has made something truly visionary — stripped down and out of time — that asks the viewer to simply submit to his distinctive, strange, funny and haunting tale of a pair of “wickies” in 1890 New England tasked with keeping the lighthouse running.
Eggers, who broke out with the terribly creepy “The Witch,” continues to prove his unique ability to transport an audience to a different time. He relishes in the language of the era and gives both his stars deliciously odd monologues to chew on and spurt out. The dialogue may be minimal — in fact it takes more than a few minutes for the first word to be uttered — but that bare bones approach makes what is said even more impactful.
“The Lighthouse” is a triumph of mood and vision, like the love child of Andrei Tarkovsky and David Lynch that knows that its actors are just a small piece of the overall composition. The sounds of the sea, the waves crashing violently against the rocks, the birds, that cursed fog horn and the looming eye of the lighthouse are all equal co-stars. That’s not to diminish the joy of the acting, however. Pattinson and Dafoe have a wonderfully complex relationship that at times even borders on that of a bickering married couple whose passion is long gone.
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