What Is the Story About?
An astronaut Jakub is sent on a spaceship to collect the particles that make up the ‘Chopra cloud.’ While his wife Lenka was the light of Jakub’s life sometime ago, the couple grows apart over time as priorities change. When a pregnant Lenka asks for a divorce over a video message, while Jakub forges an unlikely bond with an extraterrestrial creature. Where’s the tale headed?
Performances?
Adam Sandler is the saving grace of the film. As an astronaut carrying the burdens of his past and losing sight of priorities, you embrace Jakub with his flaws and vulnerabilities, thanks to his sensitive performance. Carey Mulligan has a worthy role though it doesn’t create the impact it intends to. Kunal Nayyar, Isabella Rosselinni and Lena Olin are passable in their brief appearances.
Analysis
When astronaut Jakub is in a virtual conversation with a student during a mission, the latter opines he could be the ‘loneliest man on the earth.’ Jakub convinces the student that he’s quite connected with his wife Lenka and that he converses with her daily, though reality suggests otherwise. It takes an unusual friendship with a spider to reexamine his relationship with Lenka.
Lenka, Jakub’s wife, chooses a strange time to end her relationship when her astronaut husband is away on a mission. Jakub isn’t a bad husband, but he loses sight of his priorities, not striking a balance between ambition and family. Compounding his woes is the unresolved trauma with his late father until an extraterrestrial creature forces him to mend his ways.
The choice to adapt Jaroslav Kalfař’s popular novel Spaceman of Bohemia into a web film is surprising, given the book’s philosophical undertones aren’t the easiest to replicate for the visual medium. Spaceman, beyond the quirkiness in its premise, is a snooze-fest whose essence is largely lost in translation. Jakub’s inward journey in a spaceship doesn’t lend itself to a compelling screenplay.
The scenario placing Jakub and the creature Hanus together under the same roof is intriguing. The former realises all’s not well with his marriage and finds solace in the companionship with Hanus. The creature, which has existed since the beginning of the universe, is baffled by human behaviour. Jakub gradually drops his guard and looks at Hanus’ beyond his creepy avatar.
Gradually, you’re witness to incidents that brought Jakub and Lenka together in the past and the reflective conversations with Hanus humble him. On a philosophical level, the film gets many aspects right – about a man being full of himself, inflicting loneliness upon himself, needlessly carrying guilt and having little ability to perceive life from the other person’s shoes.
Despite its noble intent, it’s hard to make sense of the camaraderie between Jakub and the spider. Spaceman, while holding a mirror upto its protagonist, gets excessively preachy. The issue between Jakub and his father isn’t established with clarity and his equation with Lenka lacks any depth.
The film ventures into every aspect under the sun – life, death, love, friendship, ambition but is emotionally too inert to take the messaging and the life lessons seriously. It’s an ordeal to sit through the snail-paced narrative and find meaning out of the superficial, dull performances. While it has ambition, what Spaceman needed more is clarity and believability.
Music and Other Departments?
Max Richter’s score is an ideal companion to the ebbs and flows in Jakub’s life and the monotony within the spaceship, adding appeal to several emotional sequences in the film. The cinematography, besides bringing an astronaut’s transformation alive visually, does well to provide a wider context to the film’s commentary on nature and the ephemerality of human existence. Close to 110 minutes, the film wears out its welcome by at least 20 minutes.
Highlights?
Adam Sandler’s performance
Intriguing, reflective premise
Drawbacks?
Dull, preachy treatment
Lacks emotional depth
Long by at least 20 minutes
Did I Enjoy It?
No Quite
Will You Recommend It?
No
Spaceman Movie Review Review by Binged Bureau
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