Occasional fits of brilliance keep us wondering what could have been
At the top of many published lists of anticipated films for 2019 was James Gray’s Ad Astra, starring Brad Pitt as an astronaut sent out into space to solve a mystery involving his father (Tommy Lee Jones), who had been a legendary astronaut himself before disappearing years ago while commanding a mission to the outer reaches of the solar system. Coming from respected director James Gray with a stellar cast and crew, many were dismayed when the movie was delayed, supposedly to work on “visual effects.” Is this the case, or were the more nefarious “studio notes” in play?
Alas, it appears to be the latter. Ad Astra is both a success and a missed opportunity. It’s clear that James Gray set out to make a long, slow space epic about the loneliness of space exploration. At some point, however, I get the feeling that test screenings must have led the studio in a different direction, because the pieced-together nature of the movie sticks out in odd ways, from a Blade Runner quality voice-over to action scenes that seem to be forced into the film to “raise the stakes.”
There are quiet, tense moments with Brad Pitt’s astronaut character that are clearly intended to be enigmatic, but then the tragic voice-over comes in and tells us exactly what he’s feeling. There is ample looped-in dialog that provides unnecessary exposition and dumbed-down foreshadowing. At one moment, two astronauts set out on a side mission, not knowing what they’ll find, and the movie tells us exactly what they’ll find before they do. It’s frustrating how little this movie trusts its audience.
When the credits roll and you see that they used two different world class cinematographers (Hoyte von Hoytema and Caleb Deschanel) and also two different A-list composers (Max Richter and Lorne Balfe), you know there must have been a lot of changes and additions after the fact. It leaves me wondering about the director’s cut we’ll see in the future, and how that will hem closer to the film James Gray set out to make. After the film disappoints at the box office, how soon before the Hollywood Reporter runs with the story of the behind-the-scenes struggle? How soon before everyone starts pointing fingers of blame at each other?
What we’re left with is a technical achievement, a film that looks and sounds remarkable. The cast is uniformly excellent. There are some very well done sequences, but even those resemble similar scenes done better in other films. Maybe there were originally some giant themes inside of this film, but they disappear in a set of common tropes from other action films that feel shoehorned in.
The stitched together nature took me out of the movie constantly. One particular sequence feels like a cross between 2001: A Space Odyssey and the “Space Madness” episode of Ren & Stimpy. This sequence is one of the films best; I wish there had been more like it.
The screening I attended was at an AMC Dolby Cinema, and that experience is always top notch; Ad Astra was no exception. I’d recommend this big screen treatment for premium format viewing. I’d skip it altogether on the small screen, though, until the director’s cut Blu Ray is released.
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Ad Astra opens this weekend at Bay Area theaters.
