Endured by Jerry Saravia
A state of isolation for four weeks inside a lighthouse while a brewing storm takes place inside a steep rock island is ripe for cinematic treatment. Director Robert Eggers has liberally borrowed from Herman Melville and Edgar Allan Poe and so, in some idiosyncratic fashion, he has made a manly horror film. This is about two wickies (lighthouse keepers) who do not get along leading to a strenuous relationship fraught with ugliness and despair. I tend to like films that push the edge of paranoia on an island populated only by two people and some seagulls (think "Swept Away," the Wertmuller version), but this "Lighthouse" is monotonous and out of focus with its ideas.
The thunderous music by Mark Korven is about as loud as the water splashing on the rocks. The two wickies, Winslow (Robert Pattinson) and Wade (Willem Dafoe), are to take charge of the lighthouse. They sleep in the same quarters. Thomas does the heavy lifting of dragging barrels of oil and physical labor tasks of carrying heavy kerosene tanks to top of the lighthouse, cleaning pots, etc. I began to wonder what Wade does - I assume masturbating to the white light of the lantern. Masturbation comes up frequently, so to speak, as Wade and Winslow masturbate though not to each other (what else are you going to do on your off time on a rock island?) Winslow uses a ceramic mermaid figurine to feed his fantasies and Wade, well, something slithering inside the top of that lighthouse.
Slowly, madness settles in Winslow though we figure Wade is already an old, superstitious kook with a pipe and a lust for alcohol. Winslow is supposed to head back, somewhere, and be picked up on that island but no one ever comes and no food rations are delivered. Winslow gets irate with Wade, can't stand his poetic musings or the nightly toasts. It is only natural that Winslow envisions mermaids he's having sex with and finding severed heads and dead seagulls. Since this is Winslow's point-of-view, we assume he is just seeing disturbing visions.
I started checking out of this film long before Winslow (revealing himself to be somebody else to Wade) slowly goes mad with an evil look in his eyes. I just found both characters unwatchable and unappealing which is a little amazing considering they are played by Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson. Dafoe commands the screen with those demonic, snarling eyes, large chin and large fisherman's beard - he plays Wade to the hilt. Pattinson has been showing his range ever since his "Twilight" days and never overacts - his last fifteen minutes on screen are a revelation. But "The Lighthouse" is simply overdone and overbaked in terms of atmosphere consisting of hard rain, copious fog, and overcast skies. The film's tone is shrouded in darkness but it becomes overbearing and unthinkably boring with the same level of dread throughout. Dafoe and Pattinson never elicit enough humanity and so we watch two guys who fight, bicker and get drunk and, eventually, leads to an explosion of grisly violence. These two saps maybe needed a few more drinks and should've slept through it until somebody came along.
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