All The Light We Cannot See Review: While ‘Marie’ Aria Mia Loberti & ‘Wegner’ Louis Hoffmann’s Radio Waves Meet In The Story, They Fail To Create Magic In This Miniseries

Cast: Aria Mia Loberti, Louis Hoffmann, Lars Eidinger, Hugh Laurie, and Mark Ruffalo.

Creator: Steven Knight

Director: Shawn Levy

Streaming On: Netflix

Language: English (with subtitles).

Runtime: 4 Episodes, Around 1 Hour Each.

User Rating:

All The Light We Cannot See Review: What’s It About:

All The Light We Cannot See is a Netflix miniseries created by Steven Knight and an adaptation of the novel of the same name written by Anthony Doerr. The miniseries tells us the story of two teenagers during the Second World War in Europe. The issues are that while the stories of both teens collide in unexpected ways, one of them is a civilian being a victim of the war thanks to the occupation of France, while the other is a young German soldier in the Nazi Army. Can these two opposite sides of the conflict find common ground?

All The Light We Cannot See Review : Script Analysis:

All The Light We Cannot See is the adaptation of one of the most award-winning books in recent memory. The novel even won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Writing, and it was also a huge bestseller. You could say that with such solid source material as the foundation of this show, they could not possibly ruin it. How could they? However, as you watch the show and the story progresses further and further, you can start feeling something crawling in the back of your mind, a voice that tells you that this is not good. Not good at all.

There are several issues, but most of them track their origins to the writing. In this case, I mean not only the writing of the show itself – the scripts and what they did in the process of adapting the novel, but also the writing of the novel itself. Yes, this is an award-winning novel, but that doesn’t mean it is perfect. Having read the novel, I found that by dividing the story in two points of view – but not making each of them equally compelling, it ends up creating a weird pace for the story and ends up giving the audience a lot of dead time not following the most interesting characters.

In this case, the story is divided between the point of view of Marie, a blind girl living in occupied France, while the other transports us behind the front lines as we meet Wegner, a young radio technician serving in the army of Nazi Germany. These two points of view couldn’t be more different and yet, they are connected thanks to the miracle of radio waves. The relationship that gets established between these two characters is quite interesting, but we only get a small taste of it, as most of the time, we follow them separately.

Sadly, Marie’s story evolves into the same old story of civilians becoming victims of the war as they see their lives ruined while battles ignite all around them. We have seen many movies like those. However, we have seen a few of them from the point of view of Wegner, a young German soldier who is not so sure that the war they are battling is the right one. This internal conflict creates in Wegner an incredibly complex character, one that needs more time on screen.

All The Light We Cannot See Review: Star Performance:

While the character of Wegner is the most interesting point of view, the show, and the novel before it, has decided that Marie’s is the most interesting story, and so we spend most of the runtime with her. Unfortunately, actress Aria Mia Loberti cannot manage to create a solid performance out of the material. The way she moves and acts doesn’t really fit with a blind person, and then when things get really intense, Loberti stops just shy of getting to that level as well. She might have potential, but she doesn’t have what it takes to carry the show by herself.

There are some very solid secondary performances in here, including the one coming from Louis Hoffmann, who plays Wegner. The actor is better known for his work in Dark, one of the most successful European Netflix productions, so he is not going to be a strange face for a lot of people. Eidinger, on the other hand ,chews the scenery left and right. So much so that his character becomes a complete cartoon at some point. Hugh Laurie and Mark Ruffalo are fine, but they don’t make enough impact with their small roles.

All The Light We Cannot See Review: Direction & Music:

If there is something quite right about All The Light We Cannot See, it is its production values. The show is not a blockbuster, but it makes the most out of what it has. The sets, rooms, and towns look quite great and there are some impressive VFX shots throughout the four episodes that scream that money is being spent on it. So, while the dialogue and the acting are off here and there, rest assured that the show at least looks pretty.

The final state of the show is quite confusing. It is true that Steven Knight is hit or miss, sometimes he comes up with great stuff like Peaky Blinders or Locke, and then he goes into something weird and dumb like Serenity. It seems like All The Light We Cannot See goes straight into Serenity territory, and Shawn Levy, who is such an experienced director, also comes off as not doing his best job. He has done amazing work on Netflix on both films and series like Stranger Things. And yet, he let this strange, inconsistent tone pass throughout the shoot.

All The Light We Cannot See Review: Last Words:

All The Light We Cannot See is not the worst thing you will watch on Netflix, there are other worst productions out there, but it is a strange beast. It never manages to adhere to the tone presented by the novel, and never tries to create one on his own that also could fit the story. In the end, it leaves things to luck, so it seems, and the result is a collection of scenes that follow a through line but don’t have cohesion between them all. This is a very odd mix, especially taking into everyone behind the camera.

All The Light We Cannot See Trailer

All The Light We Cannot See releases on 2nd November, 2023.

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