It might be a bit of a bummer to see news start rolling in about the movies screening at the Venice Film Festival, most of which you’ll have to wait months until you can watch them yourself. But there’s one movie making its premiere on the Lido that you’ll be able to see on the big screen starting this weekend: Derek Cianfrance‘s “The Light Between Oceans.” And in addition to featuring a killer lead trio in Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander and Rachel Weisz, the film also has the talents of Academy Award-winning composer Alexandre Desplat (“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The Imitation Game,” “The King’s Speech“). And today we have an exclusive listen to his theme song for the movie.
Based on the book by M.L. Stedman, the film takes place in the years following World War I, and follows Tom Sherbourne (Fassbender), a young veteran still numb from his years in combat, who takes a job as lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, a remote island off the coast of Western Australia. As the island’s sole inhabitant, he finds comfort in the monotony of the chores and the solitude of his surroundings. When he meets the daughter of the school’s headmaster, Isabel Graysmark (Vikander), Tom is immediately captivated by her beauty, wit and passion, and they are soon married and living on the island. As their love flourishes, he begins to feel again, their happiness marred only by their inability to start a family, so when a rowboat with a dead man and infant girl mysteriously washes ashore, Isabel believes their prayers may have finally been answered. As a man of principle, Tom is torn between reporting the lost child and pleasing the woman he loves, and against his better judgment he agrees to let Isabel raise the child as their own, making a choice with devastating consequences.
“The Light Between Oceans” opens on Friday, September 2nd and the soundtrack featuring Desplat’s score will be available digitally and on CD the same day via Lakeshore Records. Listen to the film’s theme below.