ReviewLight of My Life film review: Casey Affleck pictures a world without women in post-pandemic drama
- Affleck is more than matched by his 10-year-old co-star in this tale of a man’s struggle to protect his daughter
- The story, set in a world where all the women are dead, is understated and at times glacially slow
3/5 stars
Every parent must be terrified of sending their child out into the world unaccompanied, particularly if they are female. These fears are starkly considered in Light of My Life, a post-apocalyptic drama written, directed by and starring Casey Affleck.
Set in the wake of a pandemic that has wiped out the world’s entire female population, Affleck plays the unnamed father of a young girl, Rug (Anna Pniowsky), who was born just days before the virus broke, and was somehow spared the fate that befell her mother (Elisabeth Moss) and every other woman alive at the time.
Now masquerading as a boy, Rug and her father struggle to find food and shelter in the harsh wilderness of the northern United States, while avoiding other survivors and desperately trying to keep her true identity hidden.
Light of My Life plays like something of a mea culpa from Affleck, who has faced accusations of sexual harassment in the past. Despite sheltering under the guise of a genre thriller, his film illustrates the myriad dangers faced specifically by women in modern society.