Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander Face Love and Loss in 'The Light Between Oceans' Trailer
Newly crowned Oscar winner Alicia Vikander and Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender each will soon headline big-budget video game adaptations—she in the just-announced reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise and he in this December’s Assassin’s Creed. Before either of them bring those action-packed works to the screen, however, they’ll pair up in The Light Between Oceans, one of the year’s most anticipated dramas, directed by Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine; The Place Beyond the Pines). Now, the first trailer for the Sept. 2 release is here (watch it above), after making its debut on Entertainment Tonight.
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Fassbender and Vikander play a couple who, while living on the Australian coast shortly after World War I, have their lives changed forever when they discover, and rescue, an infant from a stranded rowboat. That child’s appearance proves a miraculous second chance at parenthood for the couple, who’ve recently suffered a tragedy. Yet after taking in the tyke as their own and then, years later, relocating back to the mainland, they discover that their actions have had terrible ramifications for a local woman (Rachel Weisz).
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The tensions that bubble up in The Light Between Oceans trailer seem to line it up with Cianfrance’s interest in investigating the thornier aspects of romantic relationships, even if his story (based on M.L. Steadman’s popular novel) charts a rather predictable narrative course. And from this initial glimpse at their work together, his leads—who apparently began dating in real life while working on the project in 2014—share considerable on-screen chemistry. That’ll be vital to the film’s fate as an award-season contender.
Watch director Derek Cianfrance talk about his previous feature, ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’:
