Image Credit: A24

By The Popcorn Guru

Popcorn Guru

MOVIE REVIEW: The Lighthouse

Feb 6, 2020 | 3:06 PM

This was one messed up flick and I embraced every minute!

If you’re planning to rent The Lighthouse, starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, written and directed by Robert Eggers, you might want to leave a light on, or at least a lit candle.

It’s hard to describe this film. I wouldn’t call it a horror, or a drama, so I guess that makes it a thriller. When asked about the plot of his movie, Eggers has only said in multiple interviews, “Nothing good can happen when two men are trapped alone in a giant phallus.” Okay, then. And away we go.

Two men; one an old and experienced lighthouse keeper, the other a younger man with possible past secrets, come together to keep the light on in a turn of the century lighthouse.

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The first twenty minutes are dedicated to the duties of keeping the lighthouse going. Routine sets in with the young man doing minor repairs, fighting with a bad-tempered seagull, treating fowl water and emptying chamber pots. What he wants to do is go to the light which he is forbidden to do by the elder wickie. Slowly things begin to spin out of control for both characters leading us on a path you know is not going to end well. But how will it end?

Eggers explores masculinity, knowledge, sexuality, inner turmoil, Greek mythology and the generation gap between the old rules and the new way. This would appear on the surface as daunting and even non-accessible to the average movie goer. This is where The Lighthouse triumphs. Pattison and Dafoe are all in. Each character revealing a layer through almost musical dialogue set to the neverending wind howling, seagulls crying and the creaking and groaning of the wood structures. But, Eggers manages to keep the storytelling and plot easy to follow.

The Lighthouse is not everyone’s cup of brew. There are some very disturbing scenes, which even this grizzled movie fan felt uncomfortable with. But, hey, roller coasters provide the same sense of fear and anxiety before it cranks up that first hill!

Shot in stark black and white, at a 1:19:1 ratio, you can feel the confines of the frame and story with every shot.

If you’re up for a very different kind of film, well told, and up for discussion when it ends, like that roller coaster, rider beware!