46. The Lighthouse; movie review

THE LIGHTHOUSE
Cert 15
109 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong sex, nudity, violence, gore, disturbing images

A regular trait of 2019's films was of high-quality performances in movies which didn't grab overall as much as expected.
At the beginning of 2020, there can be no clearer example than The Lighthouse in which Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe give absolutely everything.
But even they are outdone by the movie's cinematographer, Jarin Blaschke, who has justly been nominated for an Oscar.
He has created the bleakest of backdrops in startling monochrome and gets into every crevice of the actors' faces as they play out the drama of two lighthouse keepers on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.
His camera probes every nook and I could feel a shiver in response to the biting cold which was being played out on screen
There are echoes here of The Vanishing which was released last year and starred Peter Mullan in a very similar role to that of Defoe who plays a long-in-the-tooth lighthouse keeper.
The latter arrives on an isolated rock with a rookie (Pattinson) who it emerges has had a chequered past.
The older man's mistake is that he treats the newbie as little more than a skivvy and consequently, in the cramped, storm-lashed, ramshackle accommodation, resentment brews and eventually explodes.
In common with The Vanishing, alcohol, dreams and hallucinations play a key part in The Lighthouse, taking it in myriad bizarre directions.
It leaves the audience questioning what they would do cheek by jowl with someone they didn't like in such ghastly conditions.
However, let's be honest, there is so much shouting and such intense anger of the men towards each other that watching Robert Eggers' is something of an ordeal and its storyline is either repetitive or often bafflingly surreal.

Reasons to watch: Two fine actors giving it heart and soul
Reasons to avoid: Surreal to the point of baffling

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: Yes
Nudity: Yes
Overall rating: 7.5/10

Did you know? According to the Lighthouse Directory, which is maintained by the University of North Carolina, there are currently more than 18,600 lighthouses worldwide.

The final word: Robert Eggers: “Nothing good can happen when two men are left alone in a giant phallus.”

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