Review of All the Light We Cannot See

This four-part miniseries adaptation of Anthony Doerr's beloved novel of the same name benefits from performances which aren't merely good. They are revelatory. The authenticity lent by firsttime actress Ara Mia Loberti, who's blind, playing the blind French heroine Marie-Laure, cannot be overstated. And open-faced young actor Louis Hoffman brilliantly portrays the German soldier who is her most-dedicated radio listener, Werner. The two share a tender kiss near the of episode 4/4 that's fantastic. Old pros Mark Ruffalo plays her dad, a Paris museum curator, & a professorial Hugh Laurie, her uncle, in flashbacks. And finally, we must have a really villainous Nazi, and there's none finer than the Berlin-trained Lars Eidinger as Reinhold von Rumpel, who's so monumentally evil that he's not even loyal to his own genocidal regime. He's charged with stealing all precious gems at war's end for the Reich, but he hears of a diamond that legendarily promises eternal life to its owner and must locate and jealously possess it for himself. (Of course, if homicidal sociopaths thought logically, the fact he himself murders its previous owner might give him pause about its supernatural powers!) Anyway, this show earns a rating of a strong 8/10 stars from me. Watch it!