When you begin watching Light of My Life, you might feel like you’ve seen this movie before, or at least a variation of it. If you are like me, you’ll feel like this is a mixture of The Road meets Leave No Trace meets A Quiet Place meets Children of Men. After reading several different reviews, many other critics have a similar sentiment. Somewhere in the not-too-distant future, we are in a post-apocalyptic world where something horrific has already happened, and we are left with inventive survivors who are left to pick up the pieces and make a semblance of their new lives. In these types of movies, we learn that what has happened to get us to this point will slowly be revealed throughout the movie, often through flashbacks, one of the tools used in this Casey Affleck-directed film.

In Light of My Life, a global pandemic that broke out a decade prior called the QTB Virus that, for reasons never really explained, has killed a large portion of the human population, including virtually all of the females in the world. This includes the wife (Elizabeth Moss – Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale), the wife of Caleb (Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea, Triple 9), and the mother of 11-year-old Rag (Anna Pniowsky), one of the few females who has survived this worldwide catastrophe. Caleb and Rag are our protagonists, and we never leave one or both throughout the movie. We see everything through their eyes. We experience the day-to-day and hour-to-hour fears that they encounter. We live in a chock-full world of shades of grey, faint weights, and natural browns created by cinematographer Adam Arkapaw. The landscape throughout the film is ghostly and deserted, and you won’t help but think of some of the movies above, such as The Road and A Quiet Place. The natural setting almost serves as an additional character, its dramatic creepiness very attuned to the fertility of this world where they are now forced to live. Daniel Hart’s score is melancholy, threatening, and pervasive, too. It’s my favorite score of the year thus far.

What could we come to suspect in a movie as this happens? We slowly learn (loosely) of the devastation that caused so much of the world’s population to die. We know that our heroes somehow survived whatever happened to the others and have learned to cope in environments that they never expected to find themselves in. We know there will be confrontations along the way, with some far more menacing than others. We know that we will see a very human element, in this case, between parent and child.

We know there will be some hope (whether true or not) that empowers our protagonists to move on. In this case, the rumor of a sanctuary that may exist is a protected community that is a safe place for both men and women to coexist. Caleb has a relative idea of where this place if it does exist, may be as he and Rag hike northwest through terrain in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Usually, they sleep outdoors in a two-person tent, with Caleb telling Rag stories into the night. Sometimes, they find an abandoned church or shed that can provide more shelter for a night or two. Caleb always has an escape plan that he makes Rag repeatedly recite until she gets it right.

Affleck, the director, goes for broke here, drilling into Rag and the audience just how important it is to gather their supplies as quickly as possible and flee into a nearby forest together. His (over) protectiveness does not go unnoticed, showing Caleb’s type of father. He’ll do anything to protect his daughter, even if it means he has to lay into Rag occasionally and add a responsible element to her beyond what an 11-year-old should have to deal with. However, it doesn’t make Caleb unlikable. He is never cruel or overly harsh with Rag. He does understand, however, the dangers and cruelty of this new world.

While Affleck has mastered the craft of acting, he is undoubtedly still a novice in directing. Although he has much potential and wasn’t overly ambitious for a debut effort, he certainly isn’t where his brother Ben was after his first directorial effort with Gone Baby Gone, which ironically starred Casey. Casey Affleck’s efforts at symbolism are attempts in the right direction, but he still needs an editor or mentor to help him. The same goes for his foreshadowing (which was too involved) and flashbacks (which weren’t super effective either). Nevertheless, I’m not going to crush the guy for an attempt at creating something highly memorable rather than following a cookie-cutter recipe for success.

While this film has elements of the films above, it is still highly unique enough to separate itself from those movies. Affleck’s performance as Caleb is measured and calculated. It allows the newcomer Pniowsky to shine as Rag, someone who understands the risks associated with her existence but still wants the girl in her to shine. There are aspects of her life she doesn’t understand or know who to ask. The same goes for Caleb. There are conversations to be had with raising a girl that he knows needs to happen, but ones that he isn’t sure how to have. Their lives have been all about survival for Rag’s entire life, and he has forgotten many parts of being a father. These topics of conversation aren’t avoided during the film. They bring out parts of the film that are far less intense than the grim majority of the film.

Plot 8/10
Character Development 8/10
Character Chemistry 8/10
Acting 9/10
Screenplay 8/10
Directing 8/10
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 10/10
Hook and Reel 9/10
Universal Relevance 9/10
87%

B+

Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie

• The Road
• Children of Men
• A Quiet Place
• I Am Legend
• Leave No Trace