SPACE STATION 76
US, 2014, 93 minutes, Colour.
Patrick Wilson, Liv Tyler, Marisa Coughlan, Matt Bomer, Jerry O' Connell, Kylie Rogers, Kali Rocha.
Directed by Jack Plotnick.
It is not always easy to see what kind of film this is. It is set in a future with space stations all around the galaxy, some for observation, some for repairs, some transit stations, a world in which some of the characters have lived only on the space stations and have never visited Earth. What seems like a space story (even having 2001’s Keir Dulea in a cameo as the heroine’s father) turns into something of a space soap opera.
With a range of characters at the station, there is enough melodrama, with comic touches in dialogue, for a space operas series.
The captain of the ship, played by Patrick Wilson, is a neurotic loner, smoking incessantly, playing idly with the various tabs on his console, not particularly happy when a new assistant, Liv Tyler, arrives and seems to know more about the ship than he does and is continually offering constructive comment which he declines. It soon emerges that he was in a relationship with one of the crew who has since left and has been promoted on another station. He doesn’t see himself as gay. He does go to the robot who is the alleged counsellor on board and, after some discussions, realises that the robot is programmed to respond, often with cliches or, at best, proverbs, to verbal keys. The captain contacts his former lover who speaks in exasperated way about the attempt to get him drunk, sexual approaches, and his having to leave, in a new relationship with arrival captain. At the Christmas party, where secrets are being revealed, it is made clear that everybody knows that he is gay. After the party, he encounters another man on board which means he may have some future.
Liv Tyler is Jessica, an expert, never having been to earth, confiding in Misty, the mother of the little girl, Sunshine, on the station and Misty’s husband. Ted, a mechanic, that she is unable to have children. Misty is to keep this secret. In the meantime, Jessica makes friends with the little girl, helping her with her gerbil, making Misty very jealous, accusing Jessica of manipulation, something that Misty herself is most capable of. Ted, in the meantime, has sexual images, fantasy of a naked woman appearing to him. He is also attracted to Jessica. One of his difficulties is that he has an artificial hand, having shot off his hand in his first week of repair work, not in any major battle.
Donna is an aristocratic type on the station, with the child, and with a husband, Jerry O’ Connell, with a roving eye.
Life in the station can be very artificial, preparing evening meal simply by pressing buttons, pressing another button to get prescriptions of Valium, television screens in rooms so that Sunshine can see the squabbles of her parents.
Finally, there is a Christmas party where Misty suggests everybody tells a secret, revealing that she does not love her husband, that Jessica is unable to have a child, which means that everybody becomes involved, including the revelations about the captain.
Something of a tongue-in-chick comment about society, no matter where. Something of an oddball film experience.
