Netflix’s new World War II sequence All the Light We Cannot See is a ghastly failure. The shiny adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the identical title flattens morally ambiguous characters into two-dimensional avatars of pure good and absolute evil. It prioritizes the pursuit of a ridiculous MacGuffin — a uncommon cursed jewel named the “Sea of Flames” — over the on a regular basis ache and horror of conflict. But, actually, All The Light We Cannot See misplaced me as quickly as I spotted that director Shawn Levy was extra all in favour of model over substance, reworking the fact of a conflict zone into an aesthetic I can solely name “World War Twee.” Levy goes up to now in his pursuit of tidying up a tragic time that he goes out of his option to absolve his “good Nazi” hero Werner Pfenning (Louis Hofmann) of all sin! All The Light We Cannot See is a stinker that thinks explosions forged a brighter glow than nuanced storytelling.
All the Light We Cannot See is a four-part Netflix miniseries primarily based on Anthony Doerr’s bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning 2014 novel of the identical title. It follows the parallel tales of Marie-Laure LeBlanc (Aria Mia Lobetti) and Werner Pfenning within the French metropolis of Saint-Malo through the remaining days of World War II. Marie-Laure is an attractive angel of a French lady, bravely committing herself to broadcasting NPR-esque radio reveals which might be secretly transmitting codes for the Allies. Her solely “flaw”? A horrific accident left her blind as a toddler. (Which isn’t actually a personality flaw, which means she is improbably excellent.) Werner Pfenning is a genius German orphan who was pushed into an elite college for the Nazi Youth, which we hear he graduated with flying colours. He faucets into Marie-Laure’s broadcasts each evening, however retains them secret as a result of she operates on the identical frequency as a kindly Professor (Hugh Laurie) who stored Warner’s spirits up in his youth. Much like Marie-Laure, Werner’s solely flaw appears to be not his fault. He simply so occurred to be alive in Germany through the rise of the Third Reich. He’s a very good boy, you see. The a number of atrocities we’re advised he dedicated solely occur off-screen. Marie-Laure and Werner are each merely excellent.
Marie-Laure and Werner are solely a part of the story, nonetheless. During the Nazi occupation of Paris, Marie-Laure’s father Daniel (Mark Ruffalo) absconded from the museum the place he labored with the Sea of Flames. Think Titanic’s “Heart of the Ocean,” but it surely’s magic. Marie-Laure has been dutifully hiding the gem on behalf of her lacking father, utilizing her nightly transmissions to inform her Papa that she’s retaining the religion. Closing in on her heels is Reinhold von Rumpel (Lars Eidinger), a stereotypically villainous Nazi who believes the jewel will remedy his most cancers. These three predominant characters — Marie-Laure, Werner, and von Rumpel — ultimately collide within the ludicrously action-packed climax of the miniseries. The title All the Light We Cannot See clearly refers to any shades of grey.
Marie-Laure and von Rumpel don’t really feel like totally rounded human beings, however slightly archetypes in a youngsters’s puppet present. But no character is extra underserved by his ethical makeover than Werner, the one good Nazi, himself. I had a German-born instructor rising up who would regale us ’90s youngsters with insane tales about Cold War Europe. The most grisly of her tales, although, was that of her father. Her then-teenaged father and all of the younger males of their small German city had been compelled into turning into Nazi troopers. They fought for the Reich and died for it. None of them got here house to their impoverished, pregnant wives. In her telling, her father was neither a hero nor a very good man. He was, like Werner, considered one of historical past’s unfortunate ones, doomed to spend his quick time on earth aiding evil.
Werner’s eventual acts of heroism are solely extraordinary if we perceive the darkness he has overcome to lastly step into the sunshine. We see him arrive on the National Political Institutes of Education in Schulpforta, aka Hogwarts for Nazis, however we by no means witness his diabolical transformation into star scholar. We solely see him victimized or impressing tutors along with his prowess over the radio. All the Light We Cannot See refuses to indicate us Werner in any form of destructive mild. The Allied rebels he ultimately locates through radio transmission within the discipline are shot off-camera, his few kills in service of a Marie-Laure in misery.
Similarly, Marie-Laure’s single-minded devotion to the Allied trigger over-emphasizes her blindness as her solely defect. If there’s nothing flawed a couple of character besides their incapacity, their incapacity turns into one thing “fallacious” with them. Even the eventual arrival of the Americans is handled as a reason for celebration, regardless of the very fact the “liberators” achieved victory blowing up St. Malo and killing harmless individuals within the course of. Levy prefers to show his protagonists into unlikely motion heroes as an alternative of exploring any ethical ambiguity, which in the end is a disservice to the characters, the viewers, and most of all, followers of the e-book.
What’s baffled me essentially the most about All The Light We Cannot See is the way in which during which Netflix has been pushing this epic misfire as their masterpiece for months. While it’s true that newcomer Aria Mia Loberti — a legally-blind actress found by an open-casting name — is a revelation, her efficiency isn’t sufficient to offset the manufacturing’s sins. Its cowardice in exploring the knottier components of World War II render it toothless, if not tonally incoherent. Of course, none of this may follow the proficient forged or Taylor Swift’s pal Shawn Levy. This adaptation gained’t even sully the repute of Doerr’s novel. What it’d do, nonetheless, is add to Netflix’s ever-diminishing profile as a house for high quality leisure.
