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Light of My Life

Play trailer 2:28 Poster for Light of My Life R Released Aug 9, 2019 1h 59m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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80% Tomatometer 56 Reviews 72% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
"Dad" (Casey Affleck) and daughter, "Rag" (Anna Pniowsky) journey through the outskirts of society a decade after a pandemic has wiped out nearly all the female population, putting the world order in peril. As Dad struggles to protect his daughter's innocence, shielding her from the newfound dangers of man, their bond and the character of humanity is tested as Dad is forced to defend his daughter at all costs.
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Light of My Life

Light of My Life

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Critics Consensus

Its deliberate pace may test the patience, but viewers attuned to Light of My Life's sober wavelength will be rewarded with a thought-provoking chiller.

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Critics Reviews

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David Fear Rolling Stone It's not a pretty picture he paints here. But it makes you want Affleck to keep picking up that brush. Rated: 3.5/5 Aug 15, 2019 Full Review Richard Roeper Chicago Sun-Times Though "Light of My Life" is a well-filmed and occasionally brutally effective piece of work, Affleck dilutes the power of the story with too many self-indulgent, patience-testing scenes. Rated: 2.5/4 Aug 14, 2019 Full Review Sheila O'Malley RogerEbert.com The pace sometimes drags, although I got drawn into the film's slow patient build. Rated: 3/4 Aug 9, 2019 Full Review Francesca Faccani Loud and Clear Reviews Light of My Life could have fairly ended after the first scene. [...] Expectations have been created and, subsequently, partially neglected. However, it’s done in a gentle and innocent way. Rated: 3.5/5 Sep 21, 2024 Full Review Keith Garlington Keith & the Movies ...the film’s message is forceful, its approach is thoughtful, and its storytelling is raw and unflinching. Rated: 4.5/5 Aug 23, 2022 Full Review Bianca Garner Next Best Picture Affleck brings a sure hand to his direction and writing to compliment his already proven acting chops in this solid debut. Anna Pniowsky is sensational. Rated: 7/10 May 5, 2021 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (147) audience reviews
Jeremy W Terribly indulgant first scene that is ten times too long. The father son/daughter thing means it is not sure what the audience is. Is this a YA dystopia or a drama ? The script does not propell the story forward it kind of meaders like the hiking. Dull ultimately. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 11/29/24 Full Review Ishara L Bleak, poignant and well made. Unfortunately, it only skirts along the themes it tries to comment on. Outside forces try to break the father-daughter relationship for reasons that are only insinuated. Like her father, the movie protects her too much, never really endangers here. Only teaches her to survive, not to be strong. To run and hide. Live to hide another day. Without any kind of character empowerment, it felt weak. Any kind of beauty that is discovered is immediately dismissed. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 11/18/24 Full Review Jana P This started out so S L O W and never recovered. It is a waste of time. I haven't seen such a poor movie in a long time. I expected more from Casey. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 06/19/24 Full Review Jurgen B Super slow, boring dialogs and a poor effort to copy THE ROAD which has 1000 times better acting,dialogs and screenplay. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 06/10/24 Full Review John O Spoilers: Clearly Casey's baby, as he wrote, prodced, directed and starred. Inventive story, if not fully nonderivitive. Reminded a bit of "Deliverance," in its breakdown of civilization. And what do you do, and resort to just to get through the day? But the twist here is not just abusive, destructive people are likely to be after you, including lethal threats; also included is a post-apocalyptic milieu in which almost all women and girls are gone due to some pandemic that wiped them out. But more than anything, this is a love letter from a Daddy to a girl, young enough to be disguised as a boy, to keep the nosy and abusive from getting way into her business. Mom, Elisabeth, is gone due to the pandemic, so Dad, Casey, is responsible to rear Anna, called Rag, as in Raggedy Ann, who is about 11 years old. So he heads for the woods, they camp, are in a tent, sleeping bag, living off the land, fishing, and he is teaching her everything. On not only how to survive but also how to hide, because he trusts none of the men they run into here and there to buy his story that she is a boy, and believes they will harm her, abuse her, make her bear a child or more sooner or later, etc. The duo hops from vacant house to vacant house, as men have seen the boy, and some are closing in, thinking she is a girl. The beautiful way Casey talks to her, tells her stories, teaches her survival techniques, and the smart and inquisitive and curious way she replies is wonderful. And he tells her he loves her over and over and to what degree and such. In the end, the bad guys catch up, kill two gentle older guys Casey and Anna are staying with and go for Casey and the girl, who are hiding in the attic. He drops her out a window to the snow from the second floor and sends her to a shed where they had hidden some goods. Then he fights three different guys, one at a time, willing to give his life for his daughter, and kills two. The third seems to be strangling him, when Rag has come back and shoots the bad guy with the homeowner's shotgun, as she is willing to give her life to save her Dad -- greater love no one has. Then she nurses Dad in the shed, starts a fire in a stove, and finds goods they need. As he cries trying to tell her things will be fine, she says it's OK, Dad. She has come of age, and if we will be together again when we are dead, real pie in the sky, her face says, as she looks out the window, things will be very hard, and they may not be OK, but the good news is we have each other and our true love RIGHT NOW. Bravo! Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 08/14/23 Full Review Bunk M The uncertainty of post apocalypse are evident in every abandoned farmhouse this father daughter slip in & out of. Affleck is steady, but it's Pniowsky's ease in crisis that holds up. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 06/30/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Light of My Life

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Movie Info

Synopsis "Dad" (Casey Affleck) and daughter, "Rag" (Anna Pniowsky) journey through the outskirts of society a decade after a pandemic has wiped out nearly all the female population, putting the world order in peril. As Dad struggles to protect his daughter's innocence, shielding her from the newfound dangers of man, their bond and the character of humanity is tested as Dad is forced to defend his daughter at all costs.
Director
Casey Affleck
Producer
John Powers Middleton, Teddy Schwarzman, Casey Affleck
Screenwriter
Casey Affleck
Distributor
Saban Films
Production Co
Black Bear Pictures, Sea Change Media
Rating
R (Some Violence)
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 9, 2019, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Aug 9, 2019
Runtime
1h 59m
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