Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander give heartfelt performances as a couple who discover a baby and pass it off as their own in Derek Cianfrance’s (Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond the Pines) hugely emotional tale of love and sacrifice that will have you fighting back the tears.

In the immediate aftermath of WW1, on Janus Rock - a tiny island 100 miles off the coast of Australia - war veteran Tom (Fassbender) has sought out a job as a lighthouse keeper. Soon he meets and falls in love with Isabel (Vikander) - their subsequent marriage starts blissfully enough but when their efforts to have children end in miscarriage, the experience leaves Isabel on the verge of a breakdown. Her desire to have a child is total, all consuming. So when they are saved (or damned?) by what seems like a miracle - a rowing boat washes ashore with a dead man aboard and a tiny, crying baby - they decide to keep the child as their own. A decision that has consequences, both immediate and dizzyingly long-term, as the truth about the child’s real parents slowly bubbles to the surface.

A heartbreaking tale about doing all the wrong things for all the right reasons, this is a tour–de-force period weepie with complex undertones. Bring tissues... lots of them.

---