SPACEMAN

US, 2024, 103 minutes, Colour.

Adam Sandler, Carey Mulligan, Paul Dano, Kunal Nayyar, Isabella Rossellini, Lena Olin.

Directed by Johan Renck.

Spaceman is certainly a generic title. It could suggest a film about space exploration. It could suggest dramatic conflicts in space. And, it could suggest a variation on a space Odyssey.

In fact, there is something of all three possibilities here.

The star is Adam Sandler, many audiences not expecting to find him in such a serious performance after his decades of comedies, broad comedies, romantic comedies. However, in collaboration with Netflix, he has appeared in some serious roles including Uncut Gems and a particularly affecting performance as a coach in Hustle.

And, it should be said at the beginning, that Adam Sandler acquits himself very well as the spaceman, Jacub.

There is a technology side of this kind of film, the vast space craft in the future, its capacity for travelling even as far as Jupiter, the enormous interiors of the craft as well as all the signs for its maintenance, progress, and communication with. And, with a huge pink cloud hovering over Earth for several years, this is also space exploration, a mission with a single spaceman, well trained and prepared, already six months out on his travel towards Jupiter to discover the nature of this pink cloud.

But, in a different kind of way, it is also something of a space Odyssey. In 1968, Stanley Kubrick brought the phrase, Space Odyssey, into our vocabulary (over a year before the 1969 moon landing). While there is a great deal of space exploration in Kubrick’s masterpiece, there is also a philosophical (even theological) probing of what is beyond human experience, the transcendent, symbolised in that film by a vast evenly planed monolith, appearing in prehistoric times, but also present and moving through the future universe. (And one can think of such films as Gravity, First Man, Ad Astra.)

But, this time the transcendent is introduced highly imaginatively, a giant spider creature tarantula-like, an alien whose community has been destroyed, who is a survivor, interested in preserving humans, learning the language, trying to understand the motivation of the exploration. He is called Hanus and is voiced persuasively by Paul Dano.

At first, Jacub is wary, hostile, but with the conversations and the questions, gradually a report between the two, Hanus and his probing, Jacob, having already experienced some personal crisis with his wife leaving him and not communicating with him, forced to look into himself, testing himself about what he really values, even risking everything to rescue Hanus.

Which means that the transcendent themes and the personal, family themes are brought together.

Carey Mulligan plays Jacub’s disaffected wife, Lena Olin has a cameo as her mother, and Isabella Rossellini has a significant cameo role as the very businesslike public relations person behind the mission.

The film has been directed by Johan Renck, prolific video music video director, also of the challenging television series, Chernobyl.

1. The title and focused? Expectations? Space exploration? A space Odyssey?
2. The director, his reputation, videos, television series, Chernobyl? Adam Sandler in the central role, audience expectations, comic, serious?
3. The vision of the future, space exploration? The strange pink cloud hovering over earth? The origins in Jupiter and beyond? The boundaries of the universe, its mystery, evolution, origins? Spacecraft and their complexities, the single spaceman? Contact with control? The visuals of the craft, space, of the mystery?
4. Jakub? The original novel, Czech Republic, keeping the characters and setting? His life, the flashbacks, relationship with his father, informant, politics, his death? A cloud hovering over him? The flashbacks and the encounters with Lenka, love, flirting, the marriage, her pregnancy, the miscarriage? His professionalism, but his absence? Always being away, next pregnancy? The decision to leave him? The videos and his memories, his not living up to them? Attempts to contact her, moving away? Her refusal, going to stay with her mother, the contacts and the excuses, the cover? The effect on him?
5. The contact on the ground, Peter, friendship, the contact, the support, the subterfuge about Lenka leaving, the press conference, Tuma and her poise, PR, covering the situation, her authority, going to visit Lenka, not communicating that she had left? The visit and talk?
6. Jakub, his vision, exploration, the mystery are science, transcendence?
7. Hanus and his appearance, the form of the spider, the visuals of the spider, size, movement, threat? Real? An alien, his voice, explanation of origins, the attack, adrift, learning and observing about humans, language? Initial interactions with Jakub? The voice and tone to Paul Dano?
8. Lenka, the present, her reaction to Jakub, leaving, the message, going to see her mother, her mother support, the pregnancy, memories of happy days, the miscarriage, sadness, Jakub and his absences? The appeal to her to make contact?
9. Hanus, his presence, Jakub’s initial reaction, fear, antipathy, the breaking down the barriers, the pace to suit with Hanus, the talk, the revelation, the cosmic dimensions, origins, the interactions between the two, companionship, emotions, Hanus in space, Jakub and the rescue? The effect of Hanus always referring to Jakub as “skinny human”.
10. The breaking of the mission, the change in Jakub, the journey becoming personal? And the commitment to Hanus?
11. The robbery with the South Koreans, mentioning them, the pursuit, the rescuing Jakub and his working with them?
12. His future, possible reconciliation?
13. A 21^st-century variation on a space Odyssey?