MIDNIGHT REVIEWS Spaceman
Midnight Reviews features reviews and thought pieces written and edited by a parent, at night, after bedtime.
Spaceman (1hr 47mins)
Directed by: Johan Renck
Featuring: Adam Sandler, Paul Dano, Carey Mulligan
Synopsis: An astronaut, halfway through his trip to the far reaches of our solar system, comes across a bizarre creature which has somehow found its way onto his ship. It attempts to help him confront the reasons for his becoming, along with what he must do next to save his relationship back home.
Review: For every critique of a serious Adam Sandler venture, there is the inevitable discussion of the mystery of Adam Sandler. Except it isn’t a mystery. Sandler is simply a movie star who is able to open anything to a wide range of critical reviews and almost always a financial success. He knows this, and makes the movies that either keep him a star, have artistic merit or sometimes both. He is what most artists probably want to be: someone who can make anything they want.
For this latest project, we have Adam Sandler presents: Sand Astra.
The setup is simple. Jakub Prochzka (Sandler, sad) is an astronaut with the Czech space agency making his way towards the edges of our solar system. He is on a mission to investigate a mysterious magenta cloud that appeared in the skies years ago. His wife Lenka (Mulligan, also sad) feels the unstoppable push towards leaving him, feeling abandoned not just literally but emotionally even before Jakub left planet Earth.
As Jakub reaches the halfway point of his mission, on the doorstep of the cloud, a mysterious, alarmingly-designed creature (Dano, spider) turns up on his ship. After a few false starts (Jakub attempts to lock it in the toilet; attempts to poison it), the two connect as the creature starts combing through Jakub’s memories, trying to understand not just him but the entire human race. The spider also has very human-looking teeth (I wonder if he knows any NHS dentists who’re available).
The design of Spaceman is interesting, giving us a future that still seems to cling to analogue. There are more than a few hints of Alien and the like with the chunky mobiles that can be used to call someone on the other side of Jupiter, and the video call machines that take up an entire room in a similar way to the very first computers. Spaceman could conceivably be set in 1979 or 2079.
Another touchstone is, yes, Ad Astra. Spaceman features similar themes of a protagonist driven by a father who himself was driven to do what could be argued is the right or wrong thing. There are lonesome, long trips made by lonesome, long-in-the-face astronauts. And a soundtrack by Max Richter.
The similarities don’t stop there. There’s even a governmental agency that may or may not have Jakub’s best interests at heart, including a minder who states his sole job is making sure Jakub’s mental state is balanced, and yet pushes him to focus on the mission when clearly he isn’t having a great time.
The main difference between the two films is very telling: whilst Ad Astra perhaps lost confidence in its own plot (throwing in space pirates and zero-g chimpanzees), Spaceman never loses sight of itself, constantly focusing on the loneliness that both Jakub and his wife Lenka feel. This confidence is commendable, though there are long stretches of time where not much happens with either plot or emotion. It’s here where viewers may wish to jump in an escape pod. They may also feel the same way with the performances.
Carey Mulligan is given very little to do beyond looking sad and delivering her lines in a slow, low-energy, low-volume kind of way. Whilst the film is all about Jakub learning that his wife is her own person and is not just there to be used whenever he needs her, the film itself never learns this lesson, resulting in Lenka being nothing more than Jakub’s new target.
While Sandler’s performance is at times impressive there is perhaps an alternate version of this movie that features something more emotionally connected, though perhaps that’s the point with such a character. Some of his acting relies on using Jakub’s inner emptiness but this can result in scenes where Jakub sounds more bored than emotionally bereft. His accent also seems to switch scene-to-scene.
The creature, named Hanus partway through, is refreshingly strange. Dano (with the credits hilariously pointing out he is only the voice, as if someone would go an hour and a half without noticing the giant spider is in fact not Paul Dano) gives Hanus a perfectly calm and reasonable manner to ensure any malevolence is quickly forgotten. The script could’ve perhaps been given a trim when it comes to how many times Hanus calls Jakub a ‘skinny human’, with what is clearly meant as humorous quickly becoming irritating. Still, it’s nice to see a creature design that hasn’t been done to death and is completely sincere in its delivery too.
The direction, the blocking, the editing are all wonderful, especially during the introductory sequence of Jakub in his ship making it truly feel zero-gravity. The choice of shots are not perfunctory; you are dropped into a ship in the middle of space and feel it. Perhaps there is also an alternate universe where Spaceman was released properly in cinemas and this could be felt even more keenly.
While the themes are spelt out for the audience, some of the symbolism is subtle whilst simultaneously moving the plot forward in a naturalistic way. Renck along with writers Jaroslav Kalfar and Colby Day handle each story beat in a calm, self-assured way. Spaceman could’ve relied on ham-fisted allegories or eye-catching but empty spectacle to keep eyes on the screen, but ultimately the film lives or dies by its convictions.
Like Ad Astra before it, Spaceman builds up to an emotional final act where an astronaut decides to abandon all safety and jump into the empty void in order to confront it. This ending can be seen coming due to the obvious influences discussed here, blunting the emotional hit somewhat. Still, Spaceman is an effective movie that may or may not be to everyone’s tastes. Sounds like The Sandman himself.
Spaceman is available for any skinny humans to stream on skinny human Netflix. Skinny human skinny human.
