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Who else has been waiting for a
movie adaptation of the book
“All the Light We Cannot See?”
This has been a favorite since
I read it five years ago. Netflix
released a four-part miniseries this month.
The adaptation is a captivating story, both
weaving between 1944 German-occupied
France and a few years before.
The miniseries celebrates the essence,
setting, and characters of the book. Marie
(Aria Mia Loberti) is blind and a renegade
radio host, and Werner (Louis Hofman) is an
orphan and radio engineer wizard. The two
have a bond through radio. Her broadcasts are
punishable by death, and he’s forced by nazis
to track transmissions and kill broadcasters.
Change radio to cyberspace, and sadly
this story can easily be told in our times. How
stupid of me to think wars, bombing of innocent
civilians, and crazy evil men wanting to
control entire populations were in the past.
Marie and her father, Daniel (Mark
Ruffalo), flee Paris after the nazis invade to
The Movie Column
By arts columnist Tom Sims
join his uncle, Etienne (played by House star
Hugh Laurie), in the major French port city of
Saint-Malo. Although the narrative is fiction,
the German siege of Saint-Malo was tragically
real. Daniel and Marie escape with a rare
jewel said to have mythological powers. One
disturbingly villainous nazi officer (played by
Lars Eidinger) wants that stone badly!
Marie asks her father how they will reach
Saint-Malo? There are no trains, and nobody
will take them because, as she observes,
“kindness is dead and all the people of the
world have become evil at the same time.”
Daniel simply answers, “not all the people.”
Werner and Marie’s bond was through
a radio show when they were younger that
helped children cope with the horrors of war.
He said, “The tyrant is a child of pride who
drinks from his sickening cup of recklessness
and vanity until, from his high crest, he plummets
headlong to the dust of hope.”
When I read the book years ago, few could
have predicted the state of war we would
be witnessing today. On this count, author
Anthony Doerr has proven to be somewhat
prophetic. But as Werner’s sister (played by
Luna Wedler) pleads with her brother as he
was taken by the nazis, “Keep the inside of
your soul the same. Keep the frequency the
same,” so good people must resist evil tyrants
and their atrocities. Please… soldier on!
Tom H. Sims is an award-winning indie filmmaker.
His latest book is an adaptation of his short
films. Visit YouTube.com/tomhsims.
November 30, 2023 EXIT ZERO Page 37