‘The Light Between Oceans’ doesn’t quite connect emotionally

Starring Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander and Rachel Weisz. Directed by Derek Cianfrance.

Rated PG-13 for thematic material and some sexual content. Check listings for theaters. 2 hours, 12 minutes.

Bottom line: A compelling melodrama with a strangely unemotional reservedness

With “Blue Valentine” and “The Place Beyond the Pines,” filmmaker Derek Cianfrance has proved that he has a knack for both intimate romantic fables and sweeping family epics that span decades. In his adaptation of M.L. Stedman’s 2012 debut novel “The Light Between Oceans,” Cianfrance makes a film that is both epic and intimate, a love story intertwined with tragedy. In stars Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender, he finds performers who manage to deftly inhabit the characters, and just keep it from tipping over into Nicholas Sparks-style soapy melodrama.

“The Light Between Oceans” boasts fine performances and exquisite filmmaking in the cinematography, production, sound and costume design, and it’s almost enough to shake off the clingy soapy residue that comes with the romantic drama territory. It’s 1918 Australia, and Tom Sherbourne (Fassbender) a veteran of the Great War, is seeking some solitude in order to process his experience. He takes a post as a lighthouse keeper on Janus Island, and en route to his new home, catches the eye of a young local woman, Isabel (Vikander). After a picnic and some letter-writing, the two are married and start a life for two isolated on Janus.

Isabel takes to the stormy island (the crashing waves and wind are a ubiquitous presence in the film), with their simple, just-the-two-of-us rural lifestyle. But the isolation, as well as a few setbacks in starting their family lead her down a dark path of depression.

There’s a moral conundrum that arises in “The Light Between Oceans” where “saving a life” means something different from “doing the right thing.” Tom, an upstanding man, is forced to make that distinction when the couple rescue a baby girl from a stranded dinghy. Doing the right thing would mean reporting the incident and calling the authorities. Saving a life means allowing his wife to care for and keep the baby as her own. While they enjoy domestic bliss on their island, it’s an untenable situation in the tight-knit community of their small village.

“The Light Between Oceans” remains compelling throughout its two-hour plus run time, but for a melodrama that walks and talks like a weepy, it has a strangely unemotional reservedness. Perhaps it’s Fassbender’s meticulously restrained performance, or the filmmaking, which is as carefully handmade and executed as an heirloom piece. It ends up more of a study in moral and ethical decision making, than as an emotional catharsis or release, but it’s a worthy journey nonetheless.