The Light Between Oceans is stunning to see, and the performances are of the highest caliber, but it's all packaged in a story that just doesn't earn its stay, or our tears.
– Lindsey Bahr,
Associated Press,
2 Sep 2016
rotten:
The movie errs most with its main plot, which requires the characters to behave with utmost stupidity, sacrificing its hard-earned storytelling for a frustrating payoff.
– David Sims,
The Atlantic,
2 Sep 2016
rotten:
The movie ends up seeming like an inchoate hybrid of melodrama and psychodrama-between the oceans, indeed.
– David Edelstein,
New York Magazine/Vulture,
2 Sep 2016
fresh:
Contrivances and melodrama aside, it is emotionally true and that's often the most important thing for a film of this nature.
– James Berardinelli,
ReelViews,
2 Sep 2016
rotten:
Stand back from this fable and examine it for logic, and you see how nonsensical it is.