Montage-heavy and lashed by a score that is every bit as tempestuous as the sea that batters the lighthouse home of the two central characters, this adaptation of ML Stedman’s novel suggests that director Derek Cianfrance is more at ease with his own material than he is with someone else’s. There’s an emotional credibility to the exquisitely wrenching Blue Valentine, for example, that he struggles to achieve here. It’s not a problem with the actors – Alicia Vikander, who always wears her mercurial feelings close to the surface, is mesmerising in her misery when the baby she raised as her own is reunited with its mother. And as her husband, Michael Fassbender is subdued but effective. More, it’s a pacing issue, a tendency to wallow and to drag out scenes. Instead of tear-jerking, this approach eventually sees the audience dry-eyed with irritation.