THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS

A lighthouse keeper and his wife living off the coast of Western Australia raise a baby they rescue from a drifting rowing boat. —IMDB

Highly contrived, lushly photographed, melodrama relying on lots of coincidences. But Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, with acting that is restrained, along with a good Australian cast, do a reasonable job of making us go along with the story. It’s an old-style piece of slow storytelling. There’s a powerful message in this movie about forgiveness and resentment and the way they play out during adult emotional crises.   If you can overlook the flaws, this is an enjoyable movie — particularly if you like a story that pulls at the heartstrings. Some of us will need to take tissues.