The Lighthouse is written and directed by Robert Eggers, and is a claustrophobic thriller that sees Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattison) take up a position tending chores around a Lighthouse on a small and isolated island, under the care of Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe). Winslow is a quiet man, happy to stay solemn for his short stay, which annoys Wake at first, who accuses Winslow of being pompous and too serious. However, when relief from the mainland is blocked for the foreseeable future by a long storm, the two men begin to bond – they drink excessively into the night, and the standards they’ve established around the Lighthouse begin to slip away. Eggers most recent foray before The Lighthouse was the horror movie The Witch, which also proved a slow-churning thriller that tightened its subjects under ever-growing stressful circumstances. Both The Lighthouse and The Witch are best thought about after the fact, where the knowledge of how the beginning of the story leads to the end is the real kick to the guts.
The Lighthouse is elevated by two extemporary performances from Patterson and Dafoe. I haven’t followed Patterson’s filmography too closely in recent years but understand he played a blonde bank robber in Good Life and a celibate in High Life; both to some level of praise, and I think it’s fair to speculate that Patterson is a talented and transformative actor. The cocky Cullen kid of the Twilight Saga has left the station, and I can’t wait to see what he does with Batman next year (I hope he stays lean, resembling more the Batman of the Future, or Bruce Wayne from The Batman cartoon). Here, Pattison is totally believable as a gruff worker type, who slurs his words when drunk and gets angry in the light of horrific visions. Dafoe’s career is easier to pin down, continuing on an extremely busy run after excelling as a hotel manager in The Florida Project and Vincent Van Gogh in At Eternity’s Gate.; I’m now convinced Willem Dafoe is criminally underrated and one of the best actors of the current day. In The Lighthouse, Dafoe’s character pushes his mate’s buttons, as a sly and fanatical Lighthouse keeper, inclined to go on long monologued rants about whatever takes his fancy.
Unfortunately, if I had to complain, it’s that I’m not sure the material always matches the talent working within it. The first act is incredibly slow, where there are lot of shots of the men working and I’ll admit, the movie lost my attention a few times when the two actors where not interacting. I thought The Lighthouse shared similarities to Ex Machina, where an outsider enters the home of an eccentric guy he has to figure out, but Ex Machina also had a sexy robot to keep the movie interesting in alternative scenes; this one has Robert Patterson shovelling coal. There’s a mystery afoot, in figuring out a deeper message behind the overall conclusion of The Lighthouse, but unlike other big analogical movies that spring to mind, Enemy and Mother!, I’m less intrigued to think about The Lighthouse as profoundly. The Lighthouse has a tendency to spill over into being too artsy as well, from my certain point of view at least, in moments where Wake is transformed into a virtual lighthouse, or when he is delivering a monologue whilst being pummelled with dirt. I’ll always respect and support a movie that offers a metaphoric puzzle to solve, but I’m not sure I’ll remember The Lighthouse as one of my favourites. And unlike something like Midsommar, where I knew I wasn’t understanding how I was supposed to be thinking about the movie at its best, I think I garnered an interpretation of The Lighthouse rather well.
Let’s touch on the fact that the film is presented in black and white – again, I kept waiting for it to leave a mark on me, through perhaps a sudden surge of blood on white clothing, or something else that would have made for a dramatic impact. Instead, nothing, and in a tale of male isolation, I feel the theme might have felt more relatable if it was in colour, whilst the black and white aesthetic leaves the events of the film feeling surreal, creating a distance. Perhaps that’s the point, perhaps this is an old sea legend or wives’ tale meant to stay mystical. Perhaps the colour scheme merely aids the movie in feeling dreary, although I question whether the movie might’ve been more affective the other way. Or, better still, perhaps it’s a nod to classic horror movies; there were a few moments where other movies sprang to mind, like Psycho, concerning Winslow sitting with birds over his shoulder and Wake rocking in the dark. Jack Torrance also seems to be mimicked when Wake is limping with an axe like a hooligan, but The Shining isn’t in black and white.
Released in other places of the world in 2019, I know The Lighthouse made a big impression on a lot of professional critics, making a few top ten lists. Perhaps hearing about this film prior to my watching it elevated my expectations too high, but I don’t think so – I also recently caught up with Parasite, the Academy Award winning Best Picture film for the year, and that certainly didn’t disappoint. (Parasite is on Stan now if you have it; an absolute must-watch if you can go with the subtitles). The Lighthouse is a very well-made film that could offer me more revelations on subsequent viewings, but it didn’t wow me right now as I thought it might. A rating of 4.0 is nothing to sneeze at, and is the same rating I would offer for The Witch. Eggers is on to something.
4.0
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