The Lighthouse: A hell of a film, claustrophobic, audacious, ambiguous and completely bonkers
By Karen Gordon
Rating: A
Writer/Director Robert Eggers follows up his fabulous debut feature film The Witch, with The Lighthouse – a movie which, in a season of the unusual and the memorable, just might be the most original film of the year.
Set in the 1890’s, it stars Robert Pattinson as Efraim Winslow, a former lumberjack who comes to an isolated rocky island to work for several weeks for lighthouse keeper Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe). Wake is every sea captain cliche you’ve ever seen, from the cap and beard, and knit sweater, spouting salty cliches and old mariner’s superstitions.
Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson are two isolated souls descending into madness in The Lighthouse
He treats the tightly wound Winslow like a dog, and makes a show of forbidding access to some areas of the lighthouse. He hoards a big ring of keys and forbids Winslow from going to attend to the light, which he declares is his business and completely off limits. This, of course, feeds the younger man’s feverish curiousity.
It’s tight quarters, There isn’t much privacy. There’s one bedroom with two beds and a bucket for bodily functions. The two sit down to dinner together nightly, for some swill that Wake his whipped up. For a time, Winslow resists Wake’s attempts to get him to even take a sip of alcohol. That refusal irritates Wake, who does whatever he can to try to provoke the younger man.
For his part, Winslow resists and throws himself into his tasks and does his best to get through the month, although the isolation, the loneliness, sexual frustration and hallucinatory dreams (including mermaid sex) add to his burdens. You can almost feel him counting off the days. But, eventually, pushed by Wake, the solitude and his own personal demons, battered by the elements and the local seagulls who seem to be taunting him, Winslow starts to unravel, and threatens to take Wake with him.
The movie shifts in tone from drama to comedy to horror and back again taking unpredictable turns, occasionally dropping hints that not all is real, as it moves to its debate-worthy conclusion.
Eggers is a meticulous filmmaker. For his debut feature film The Witch, he researched language from the 17th century, including the Salem Witch Trials and wrote his dialogue in kind for creepy effect. He’s done something similar for The Lighthouse, studying up on the way the seafaring men would have spoken and putting that in the mouths of his characters.
The Lighthouse in black and white. Instead of the usual letterbox presentation, Eggers also shot it using an old-fashioned aspect ratio that makes the frame almost square. It forces our attention squarely on the two men and adds to a sense of claustrophobia, a sense of the surreal, and an almost hallucinatory feeling. All that is underlined by the film’s sound design and score.
Much of the joy of The Lighthouse, can be found in the performances of Dafoe and Pattinson. Although on paper an unlikely match, they dig into their roles with gusto as the movie takes one unexpected turn after another. These are two of the richest and most interesting performances of the year.
What’s even more of a joy, is wondering what Eggers is geting at here. He’s spoken about his previous film The Witch as being about the dark feminine, and The Lighthouse with its obvious phallic symbolism, as exploring the darker side of masculinity.
That would be theme enough for any film. But Eggers doesn’t work in a straight line. He’s thrown in numerous narratively ambiguous rabbit holes that beg debate.
Is this about madness? Nature unleashed? Is it a promethean parable? A fever dream? Are we in hell? You can make a case for any or all of these and more.
It’s bonkers and a hell of a film.
And even better, with The Lighthouse, Eggers establishes that he’s more than a one trick pony. He’s a true original, auteur and clever filmmaker who isn’t interested in pandering.
Rumour has it that for his next film he’s working on a remake of Nosferatu. I can hardly wait.
The Lighthouse. Directed by Robert Eggers. Written by Robert Eggers and Max Eggers. Stars Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson. Opens wide across Canada Friday, October 25, with Thursday openings in selected cities.