A Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, adapted by a decorated screenwriter. An Oscar-nominated director blessed with an A-list cast and a whopping budget. The ingredients are all there but the recipe fails to rise. All the Light We Cannot See (on Netflix now) somehow ends up a flat, flavourless Euro-pudding.
Based on Anthony Doerr’s bestseller, this trite and turgid four-parter follows Marie-Laure LeBlanc (luminous debutant Aria Mia Loberti), a blind girl in Nazi-occupied France. She illegally broadcasts over the radio each night, hoping that her coded messages will reunite her with her missing father (Mark Ruffalo) and uncle (a whiskered but wasted Hugh Laurie).
Instead, her transmissions are intercepted by teenage German soldier Werner Pfennig (Louis Hofmann), an electronics genius reluctantly enlisted by the Nazis to track down resistance signallers. As bombs fall and the townsfolk starve, they fight to keep Marie’s location secret. Meanwhile, Werner falls in love with her voice, risking his life to protect someone he’s never seen.
It’s epic, it’s sweeping, it’s other adjectives that get applied to period productions. It’s also as subtle as a doodlebug. Writer Steven Knight and director Shawn Levy have clumsily scissored the source material to make it less dark and more optimistic. The result is preachy, sanitised and sentimental.
James Parker is a UK-based entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to the West End, he offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
