'The Lighthouse'

Isolation, loneliness and the pounding ocean do things to a person — and watching Robert Eggers’ harrowing head-trip, “The Lighthouse” might do a few things to the viewer as well.

It’s sometime in the late 1800s, on a far-off spit of land by the roiling ocean. Two men have arrived to start their work as “wickies,” keepers of the lighthouse. One, Thomas (Willem Dafoe), has been doing this work for years. The other, Ephraim (Robert Pattinson), is new to the lighthouse, after years of cutting timber north in Canada. Ephraim’s contract is for four weeks, and he tells Thomas he’s looking forward to steady work and some time alone.

But Ephraim, while working all the back-breaking jobs Thomas has assigned him, notices some odd things around the lighthouse. There’s the mermaid figurine buried in his mattress by its previous occupant. There’s Thomas’ insistence that he alone tend to the lamp at the top of the lighthouse. There’s the seagull that menaces Ephraim, and Thomas’ stern warning that it’s bad luck to kill a seagull.

One night, with a storm roaring in, Thomas and Ephraim get roaring drunk together, and Ephraim tells Thomas his darkest secret. It’s too much for Thomas, who asks repeatedly, “Why’d you spill your beans?”

Eggers made a stunning debut with his Puritan horror story “The Witch,” and he surpasses that debut with this twisty psychological tale. Writing with his brother Max, and inspired by period novelists such as Herman Melville and Sarah Orne Jewett, Eggers steeps the film in authentic period dialogue and design. Eggers goes further, with cinematographer Jarin Blaschke shooting in black-and-white 35 millimeter film, in an almost square frame, to add to the claustrophobic atmosphere that seems to be driving both men insane.

But which one is the lunatic? Eggers provides plenty of evidence both ways. Dafoe and Pattinson, in a perfect collaboration of powerhouse actors, give full-throated performances that keep the audience in suspense. Is Thomas the madman? Is Ephraim? Are they both? Or are the brutal conditions of working the lighthouse, and being trapped alone together by a harsh sea, enough to make anyone lose their grip on reality?

Eggers has a Kubrickian streak in him, happier posing questions then answering them. Moviegoers who like their movies tied up neatly may be driven mad by Eggers’ lack of simple resolution. Those of us who like their movies thought-provoking and impressionistic will also go around the bend, but they’ll enjoy the trip more.

——

‘The Lighthouse’

★★★1/2

Opened Oct. 18 in select cities; opens Friday, Oct. 25, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City) and Megaplex Jordan Commons (Sandy). Rated R for sexual content, nudity, violence, disturbing images, and some language. Running time: 109 minutes.