The Lighthouse

A grim tale of a wickie’s (lighthouse keeper) decent into madness. Shot in grainy black and white and a nearly square aspect ratio for a more old school atmosphere, it made it feel more claustrophobic and raw.

An ex timber man hiding a secret past try’s his hand a lighthouse keeping. He immediately finds out it’s a tough job and the old guy who’s in charge of him is a bit of a prick towards him. He finds a carved mermaid hidden in his bed and eventually starts masturbating over it and having strange mermaid based dreams and fantasies.

Now it’s hard to tell what’s in the guys head and what is reality as events seem to get muddled up with hallucinations towards the end of the film. As far as I can tell after doing a pretty shitty job he catches a view of Dafoe’s character naked in the lighthouse and get curious. Then after a bit of a feud with a seagull he murder’s the seagull. A storm hits the tiny island and the pair are cut off and have little to no supplies. They dig up a stash of gin buried on the island and begin getting fucked up!

After some rather excellent monologues by Dafoe, Pattinson’s character starts losing the plot big time. He confess’s that he stole his name off his last Forman, from the timber job. There was an accident apparently and Pattison’s character could of helped but instead chose to watch him die. ‘Why did you spill ya bean’s Tommy?’.

Things go down hill from here, after another argument over the lifeboat the pair realise they are out of alcohol. So like any normal person they mix turpentine with honey! A really bad storm hits that night and reeks havoc on the house.

Finding Dafoe’s secret log book floating in his sick and piss, Patterson takes offence when he discovers Dafoe’s character has recommended firing him without pay for doing a shit job.

A fight ensues and Patterson is the victor. He treats Dafoe like a dog and try’s burying him alive. He stops and takes the keys to the light off him. He goes back to the house and is attacked again by Dafoe. Patterson finish’s him off this time and makes his way to the mysterious light, gets there has an episode and falls down the stairs or the lighthouse. We catch up with him having his innards pecked at by seagulls. The end!

Did I enjoy this movie? kind of, I loved Dafoe and I thought the chemistry between the two characters was great. I’m not normal a fan of Patterson I find him rather a wooden actor with no range normally, but this role seemed to suit him. The film was a bit up its own arse and tried a bit to hard to be clever and meaningful. That said it was still mostly an enjoyable watch with some great performances.

2.5 men hiding in a shed masturbating to carved wooden mermaid’s out of 5