Ad Astra (2019)
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Ad Astra Movie Review
Ad Astra is a 2019 science fiction drama film directed by James Gray and starring Brad Pitt. It’s another strong addition to the admirable pantheon of 2010s hard SF features.
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“The enemy up here is not a person
or a thing. It’s the endless void“
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It follows an astronaut who goes into space in search of his lost father, whose experiment threatens the Solar System. This script is so rich. It’s deceptively simple, but actually layered with meanings so let’s break it down one by one theme.
I expected that this would be more dramatic and less of a SF spectacle so the ending was satisfactory to me, even though it can obviously feel anti-climactic to some people who expect a grand conclusion. But the movie is obviously immensely grounded in reality that it came as no surprise whatsoever that it has no aliens in it.
So let’s talk about that first. The movie is surprisingly both nihilistic and optimistic in its approach, but in obviously very different spheres of life. While I am personally an optimist and all for space exploration and searching for life outside of our own, I still hugely appreciated the film portraying it as it is – incredibly difficult to find anyone out there.
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It doesn’t mean that there are no civilizations whatsoever in the universe, but they are so difficult to find. That’s why that moment showcasing the different beautiful planets which are still entirely empty was both truthful and heartbreaking. It’s one of the film’s most poetic moments.
As for its optimistic side, the film has an amazing message – we should all come to appreciate our own little blue planet more and to love people more. It’s all about humanity and the admiration of what has been in front of us all along. Thus, I found the film absolutely beautiful in this important sentiment that is universally relatable to all of us.
The film wouldn’t be nowhere near as great if the protagonist wasn’t great. Because this is just as much a drama as it is science fiction, characterization and emotion are important, and in both areas the movie hugely delivered.
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Roy McBride is a different central character for this type of movie as he is depressed, a loner and with very conflicted feelings toward his father who literally abandoned him in search of something greater. I absolutely loved that complex, hurting relationship between the two, and I felt the pain emitting from his face.
That’s in huge part thanks to Brad Pitt’s very stellar, Oscar-worthy performance. It will be a shame if they ignore his great work here, probably his career-best. His performance is so subdued and thus like no acting at all. He could have easily gone overboard with emotion, but he did not, and all of emotion on his face is thus earned and it looks real.
Everyone else also did a great job, though obviously this is a one-man show. Tommy Lee Jones is truly excellent in a very small, but memorable performance as a deeply disappointed, very sociopathic and possibly even crazy older man. Donald Sutherland’s role is very small, but he still makes an impression. Liv Tyler not so much as she’s a typical love interest. But Ruth Negga is terrific. I haven’t seen her since ‘Loving’, but she showed here again that she’s a very good actress in a very interesting role.
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Let’s talk about the negatives. Yes, there are flaws in this movie, mostly minor such as that stupid, chaotic killing scene inside the ship which I hated. But the big flaw is that the commercial and the arthouse side of the film do not mash well together, at least not for me. I loved the film for its artistic and scientific merits, but all of the more commercial, more action-oriented sequences felt a bit displaced, though some are great with the Moon chase sequence being the highlight. The ape sequence is also horrifically memorable.
The first half is a grand science fiction adventure while the second half becomes a pure drama. I would say that it succeeds in both areas, but the eventual conclusion left me wondering if some scenes in the first half were necessary, though most of them are terrific undoubtedly. I found the SF elements all very plausible for our near future, and of course I loved the visuals of Neptune and how we finally got to see that planet get a center stage in a major genre picture.
There are some religious overtones here as well and I obviously had mixed feelings about them. Yes, they fitted the narrative well, but sci-fi and religion do not mash well for me. But the emotion is definitely felt throughout, and it’s never manipulative in any way. The dialogue is excellent, and I also loved the narration by Pitt which reminded me of reading a great SF novel, but it still fitted the movie well without it being too expository.
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Ad Astra looks gorgeous. The score is very good, though not hugely memorable. And the sound effects are terrific throughout. But the cinematography is one of its finest aspects as some shots are truly stunning, and the close-ups on the protagonist are all very cinematic and very important for emotion. I found the visual effects truly phenomenal as everything looks super realistic and polished. And the fact that this is an original script instead of adapted just goes to show how talented James Gray can be as he both wrote and directed this film with panache.
Though the more commercial elements such as some action sequences fell a bit out of place, Ad Astra is otherwise a remarkable SF drama and undoubtedly one of the year’s greatest pictures. Brad Pitt delivered such a grounded, subdued performance in a fantastic, very rich and complex role. The visual effects are mesmerizing and the cinematography is strikingly gorgeous at times. The dialogue is excellent, the emotion is definitely felt and the film explores its central turbulent father-son relationship superbly while also tackling the tremendous, potentially heartbreaking difficulties of finding extraterrestrial life and the importance of appreciating our own planet and humanity in one beautiful, universally applicable message. The fact that this amazing script is original and not just adapted just goes to show how talented James Gray is, and he also directed the movie with panache.
