Sorry to rain on the parade of glowing reviews for this well done movie, but what is it with some stories twisting the true nature of adultery into something beautiful and respectable? Please don't lecture me about the reality of the world and how this must be portrayed in our fictional stories. I'm not supporting the notion that there shouldn't be stories with adultery in them, but even Mario Puzo's excellent novel and co-written screenplays (The Godfather series) portray the Corleone family as a bunch of flawed, but GOOD guys, however in the end, we see the destruction, heartache, and misery their lifestyle leaves behind. Not so in this French film (which isn't nearly as sinister as The Godfather, I know). I'm not going to be a sheep and follow along with most of the other reviewers and opine about how lovely it is for such a wonderful and kind man to put his powerful male seed into the barren, childless wife of his lighthouse co-worker (really boss, here). Oh, how everyone's heart swooned with sympathy and compassion for a most attractive married woman (trapped into a seemingly passionless marriage with such an uptight husband) who "fell in love" with this handsome (albeit mysteriously injured) former soldier who bleeds gentleness out of his constantly smiling, peaceful soul, and who is well versed in music and literature and seemingly everything else, and who is kind to animals (and of course the kitty just loves him, because the kitty can sense this man's pure and loving soul). He even surprises our emotionally rich and stoic heroine by playing her sentimental musical instrument (immediately building romance in her wanting heart) and even repairs it after he accidentally breaks it. Oh, the emotion and maturity when she leaves the repaired, sentimental instrument for him as a loving gift of her affection. There are many great things about this movie, like the beautiful and picturesque landscape/backdrop with its attention to an older, almost artisan style of lighthouse management. The glass of the lighthouse is so beautiful and mesmerizing as its light filled glow turns round and round, almost with sensual sensitivity illuminating the "love" that this beautiful married woman and her husband's trainee at the lighthouse have for each other with its rising tender and noted heart-pricked romantic tension of the most sincere and passionate kind. The acting is top notch (the actor who plays the husband is a freaking fantastic actor, by the way) and the film includes poignant historical, social, and cultural elements into the plot. It even includes the support for the concept of forgiveness and the ability of people to change and improve (specifically the husband of the adulteress who grows to respect our hero even though he banged his wife, but puts all that behind him). We even learn at the end of the movie that the husband lovingly raised as his own the daughter which was the result of this "affair". A truly good man. I liked that bit, but don't think it's worth the adultery as the ends do not justify the means. By the way, I am all in favor of forgiveness and improvement, as we all need it and should practice it. This film is rich with just about everything, except the backbone to criticize adultery for what it truly is in the most naked sense of its character. This is achingly made apparent when our adulterous heroine (played by a brilliant actress) rides her bike up on the hill in the distance and emotionally waves (seemingly to her husband) and her adulterous "lover". We see the husband wave back to her, only to realize that lover boy is also waving, but more emotionally, and with the husband's realization that she's achingly waiving what seemingly is a tearful good bye to his trainee, the subject of his wife's betrayal. Oh how the tears flow for such a "beautiful" gesture of true, passionate and achingly sad LOVE! Please get me a tissue. The only person in the film who has a problem with the adultery is characterized as an unrighteously judgmental bastard who tries to harm the fragile marriage of the lighthouse mentor and his adulterous wife. Watching this film made me feel like I was reading a much better version (in the literary sense) of that horrible novel by Robert James Waller (The Bridges of Madison County). Somebody get me a barf bag. To you ladies who loved this film or Waller's lame excuse of a novel, would you be so sympathetic if the roles were reversed and it was the husband who had had an "affair" that is depicted as justifiable? Huh? I've just seen a very scripted, well done, and loosely interpreted version of that crappy novel in this French film. Husbands who betray their wives are bad, but wives who betray their husbands have an excuse, right? Five out of ten because it's a very well done movie with a sickly wrong message. Peace.
Review of The Light
