All the Light We Cannot See: An Uneven Adaptation of the Best-Selling Novel

Here we go again…a favorite novel gets the greenlight from Netflix. A time for anticipation and possible disappointment. If the novel in question is the Pulitzer Prize winning, enormously popular, All the Light We Cannot See those feelings are heightened. How will the tone balance human hope and desire with the misery and fear of Nazi-occupied France? How will the book’s flashbacks, parallel chapters, and non-linear story-telling play out on the screen? How authentic will the actors be in portraying their characters’ daily challenges and what about the languages and accents in the French-German setting? And that always touchy subject in beloved book adaptations, how far to stray from the original source material? Let’s see how the four-part limited series does in answering these questions.

Marie-Laure is a blind French girl broadcasting an illegal radio program from the walled French city of St. Malo, hoping to reach her father and uncle. Forced from Paris by the Nazis, Marie-Laure and her father, Daniel, have taken refuge in her uncle Etienne’s home in St. Malo. Werner Pfennig is a German soldier forced into service at a young age because he’s a radio fix-it prodigy. Flashbacks reveal a younger Marie-Laure and Werner listening to the soothing voice of “The Professor” over the air waves safe in their respective homes before the war came to them. Marie-Laure recognizes her uncle’s voice and realizes that he is The Professor. Werner is assigned to track down Marie-Laure’s radio location. Their paths are destined to cross.

Marie-Laura’s (Aria Mia Loberti) broadcasts include coded messages to the French Resistance from reading the braille edition of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Mark Ruffalo (Dark Waters) plays Daniel, a museum director who upon fleeing Paris with Marie-Laure pockets some rare jewels to keep them out of Nazi hands. An unhinged SS officer (played by Lars Eidinger) is searching at all costs for one gem in particular. Upon hearing her voice over the air waves, Werner (Louis Hofman, Dark) develops a soft spot for Marie-Laura and can’t bring himself to turn her in. Etienne (Hugh Laurie, The Night Manager) is house bound (due to what we’d now call PTSD from WWI) until he’s finally coaxed outside by Marie-Laura and actively joins the Resistance.

In her debut role, Loberti beat out thousands in a global search to play Marie-Laure. (The young Marie-Laure, Nell Sutton, is also excellent.) Both actresses are legally blind, a casting coup for the authenticity of the main character. In fact, the adult Marie-Laure’s sense of hearing, touch, and smell is a captivating highlight of the series. Daniel builds her a detailed wooden model of St. Malo and she learns to recognize every nook and cranny by feel. He then guides her through town, and she memorizes the obstacles and number of steps between blocks. Soon she’s navigating the village independently. The series is filmed on location and looks and sounds great.

The show struggles to find the right balance between the serious and lighter moments, erring on the side of sentimentality. It lacks the depth and nuance of the novel. People are either good or evil with none of the in-between gray area necessary to survive in wartime. And we must talk about the language and accents. Netflix, the worldwide platform for international languages chose to make this series in English. French characters have British accents. The German actors have some sort of accent. Then there’s whatever elocution Ruffalo is speaking. It’s truly weird.

All the Light You Cannot See is a mixed bag. Reading the book may or may not be a plus. Book readers will have more background to understand the jumbled timelines but could be disappointed with the series’ romantic leanings. The series chooses to end on a more hopeful note. Marie-Laure and Werner are given a little more time together and the final scene provides closure without the ill-fated epilog of the book. My final thought is right there in the title; all the light you cannot see shines through the eyes of Marie-Laure.

D² Rating ◼◼◼☐☐

Trivia: Anthony Doerr followed up All the Light We Cannot See with what time-spanning novel centered around an ancient Greek manuscript? (Answer below)

Trivia: The French Resistance fought the Nazis and the French collaborators based in which French resort town? (Answer below)

Answers: Cloud Cuckoo Land and Vichy