In The Light Between Oceans, Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander live by the ocean—and I bet they’re both hoping that, if they put a seashell to one ear, they could hear the distant sound of another round of Oscar nominations. The period drama is based on M.L. Stedman’s novel of the same title, and it’s directed by Derek Cianfrance, who previously brought us the devastating Blue Valentine and the ambitious The Place Beyond the Pines.
The movie follows the couple as they find a baby who washes ashore, and raise her as their own—only to find out that her mother might actually still be alive. Rachel Weisz plays the still-heartbroken mother, because I guess two Oscar nominees wasn’t enough. The trailer is full of dramatic half-whispers and impassioned gazes—about half of them filmed during the golden hour—and between Fassbender and Vikander, whose meteoric rise this year is likely to bring her a golden statuette this Sunday, this movie is basically daring us to speculate about next year’s Oscars already. We’ll try to restrain ourselves until the movie comes out on Sept. 2.
