By Nia Edwards-Behi
We’re big fans of Chris Crow’s work here at Brutal as Hell, following Devil’s Bridge, Panic Button and The Darkest Day. With the arrival of his latest feature, I don’t think that’s going to change. It’s an unconventional film, which I’m certain will frustrate some viewers, but for me it’s Crow’s most skillful film to date.
The Lighthouse takes its inspiration from a real event in Welsh maritime history, namely the Smalls Island tragedy of 1801. Now, I think it’s best to know as little as possible about what happened, but if you’re already familiar with the story anyway it doesn’t matter too much: the real events offer only a skeleton to the story, any details folkloric at best, and so Crow is allowed the space to breathe life into these characters in his own way. There are only two: Thomas Griffith (Mark Lewis Jones) and Thomas Howell (Michael Jibson), two men tasked with taking over keeper duties at Smalls, a wooden lighthouse on a tiny rock of an island, 25 miles away from the coast of Pembrokeshire. It’s clear from the outset that these men don’t get on, but they plough on with their duties anyway. Their routine plods on, but the weather takes a turn for the worse. A storm rages around them, trapping them in the tiny lighthouse for weeks longer than they have provision for, as no replacement or rescue can come anywhere near them. Tensions flare between the two men, and the longer they remain trapped, the madder they become. Then tragedy strikes, and the real madness begins.
The Lighthouse is quite different to Crow’s previous films, but there are certainly thematic overtones here which ring familiar. There’s a toxic sort of masculinity that’s central to the pain Griffiths and Howells are suffering, entirely unrelated to their ordeal in the lighthouse, and it’s the sort of macho posturing that drives characters in Devil’s Bridge too. And there’s definitely a critical eye cast on the role of religion in society (and, indeed, these two themes are interlinked) as well as in the personal lives of men. The close-quarters of Panic Button’s doomed flight are here shrunk again, as is the cast of players. It’s certainly pleasing to see the development of form and ideas in a filmmaker’s body of work, and it’s evident in The Lighthouse.
As you might imagine, a film that spends 90 minutes in close-quarters with only two characters needs some very good performances at its core in order to be remotely watchable. Luckily, Jones and Jibson both do wonderful work here. I’ve already sung Jones’ praises once this year, for his towering performance in The Passing, and here again he is an imposing figure. Quite different to The Passing’s Stanley, though, Thomas Griffith is no silent sentinel, instead he is, appropriately, a tempest of aggression, machismo, and pain. We first see him in a boxing ring, and that brewing potential for violence stays throughout the film. Conversely, Jibson’s Thomas Howell is a timid mess of a man, clinging to religious belief as the only way to alleviate the guilt he feels for a mistake he’s made in the past. It’s this core clash of faith and secularity that drives the film – this odd couple clashes in ways that we might expect from such a set-up, but the film is at its finest when exploring the much deeper nature of their individual guilt. The stand-out scene for me is when the men, in their drink, finally reveal the causes of their pain to each other, and what begins as sadness and grief soon explodes in anger. Jones in particular is absolutely searing here, delivering some of the lines which, I believe, are key to understanding the film as whole.
The film is a huge technical achievement, not only in terms of Crow’s ability to direct the film in an interesting way in such small confines, but in the entire production’s recreation of the lighthouse itself. Built in a warehouse in Cardiff, the film’s set is a testament to some real craftsmanship behind the scenes – as is the post-production and VFX work. Many of Crow’s frequent collaborators are present and correct behind the scenes – including producer David Lloyd, cinematographer Alex Metcalfe and composter Mark Rutherford – and it’s fair to say it’s a team that works very well together.
Naturally, sustaining attention in a film like this is quite difficult, and while the film’s pace is slow, I didn’t really find my focus drifting. This is very much a chamber piece, so if you’re not fond of slow character building and visual storytelling, then this might not be one for you. Otherwise, The Lighthouse is very much a film worth your time. It’s not only an achievement of low-budget filmmaking, it’s also a damn sight more interesting than many other psychological thrillers you’ll set your eyes on this year.
The Lighthouse will be released in the UK on July 8th 2016, through Soda Pictures.
The Lighthouse – Official International Trailer 1 from Dogs Of Annwn on Vimeo.