SummaryDuring World War II, the journeys of blind French teenager Marie-Laure LeBlanc (Aria Mia Loberti) and German soldier Werner Pfennig (Louis Hofmann) cross in Shawn Levy's four-part limited series based on Anthony Doerr's novel of the same name.
SummaryDuring World War II, the journeys of blind French teenager Marie-Laure LeBlanc (Aria Mia Loberti) and German soldier Werner Pfennig (Louis Hofmann) cross in Shawn Levy's four-part limited series based on Anthony Doerr's novel of the same name.
It’s worth watching for Loberti’s outstanding performance and the generally impressive production value, but it’s clear that it could have been so much more.
As a storyteller, Doerr is a master at weaving all these threads and elements together while giving us more nuanced characters, but in this well-intentioned production the stitching and seams that we can see all too often.
At times it is so clichéd it could be a Second World War spoof. It is as if the makers were determined to take what some critics hailed a masterpiece and reduce it to a pat potboiler brimming with constipated dialogue.
The show could be forgiven some shonkiness and self-indulgence if the central chemistry between Marie and Werner was coherent. But the achronological telling wreaks havoc with their relationship, and the German soldier is relegated to a footnote. What’s left is a cartoonish portrait of a Nazi in pursuit of a blind girl’s diamond, which does little credit to the sheer scale of suffering endured in both our recent history and the contemporary moment.
All the Light We Cannot See is visually impressive and can feel like a movie in places, with its glossy production. But, unfortunately, the quality desperately lacks in other places such as the convincing writing of these characters and their four-episode arcs.
Nothing about this final product suggests that Levy or Knight was the right choice to bring this story to the screen. Their vision for Doerr's novel is shallow, messy, and, most unfortunately, instantly forgettable.
A ghastly failure. The glossy adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name flattens morally ambiguous characters into two-dimensional avatars of pure good and absolute evil.
Forget the negative reviews and nitpicking(another example of why we should not trust them). If you’ve never read the novel like myself you’ll avoid all of that negativity. I believe this is a masterpiece. I can even overlook the lack of French actors. I love that this is something I can watch with my kids as well. It has strong morals and heart(something that is missing in most modern movies/television. The final episode is one of the most emotionally captivating episodes of tv I’ve ever watched. Tears of joy.
I have not read the book.
Great visuals and casting. The **** are caricature villains and the girls radio monologues are a bit much at times, but otherwise definitely worth a watch.
This miniseries is clearly a project for which Netflix was betting more on prestige than on making it an instant hit. However, the gamble seems to have gone in the opposite direction, as the show has garnered more interest than I anticipated but losing the critics approval.However, despite its growing popularity, I feel that the manner in which it is presented on screen fails to capture the vibrant and profound essence it could have had considering its source material.Sometimes, there are books that must remain between the pages that contain them. All the Light We Cannot See is a prime example of it.
Towards the end of the 1st episode I noticed that I was rather forcing myself to finish it. In the middle of the 2nd one I decided that I cannot force myself anymore. It’s just a boring idea free footage and a good example how poorly you can dramatize even a good book story.