Mark Reviews Movies: AD ASTRA

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Review by Mark Dujsik | September 19, 2019

Simplified to the extreme, Ad Astra is about an isolated man, dedicated to his job, learning to get in touch with his feelings. The notion is barely hidden in co-writer/director James Gray's film, which begins with the man's apathy upon watching his wife leave him and climaxes with a confrontation between the man and his long-absentee father, who also preferred a life alone, dedicated to his work, and disconnected from any emotional attachments. If that's the obvious and rather clichéd destination, the journey of this narrative definitely is what matters.

Here, Gray and co-writer Ethan Gross have given us a believable and visually wondrous vision of the "near future." In this age, humankind has colonized the moon and at least part of Mars, while also venturing farther into the solar system to determine if humanity is actually alone in the universe. The plot, which is all about astronaut Roy McBride's (Brad Pitt) attempt to reconnect with his father (There's more to it, of course, but we're talking the basics at the most fundamental level), is mostly an excuse for the filmmakers to take us on a tour of these worlds.

They're genuine marvels, created using convincing digital effects and intricate production design. We buy it all, even as the story's mysterious premise seems like a thin veneer to get us from one locale to the next and to romanticize the plight of an emotionally constipated hero.

The more specific details of the plot include the fact that a strange energy phenomenon has devastated humankind's home planet and its settlements elsewhere. This premise is established with the first of the handful of action sequences here. When the energy event occurs, Roy is working on a giant antenna that rises into the Earth's stratosphere (A dizzying look down shows the clouds and an airplane, flying by as if it's an insect). A loose mechanical arm swings into the structure, causing a series of explosions and sending workers plummeting from those tremendous heights. Roy has to bail, too, giving us a furious descent through the layers of atmosphere toward the punishing ground below.

We've been interrupted from the plot synopsis to point out the impressiveness of this sequence, and it's not the last time that Gray and Gross put their world-building and story progression on hold for an inventive spectacle. Anyway, the source of the energy surge is a research station, currently in the orbit of Neptune.

An assemblage of military officials has determined that Roy is the best candidate to attempt to fix the problem at its source. First, even during times of high stress, his heart rate has never gone over 80 beats per minute over the course of his career. Second, his presumed-dead father Clifford (Tommy Lee Jones) was the head of the Neptune-orbiting lab, looking for extraterrestrial life. Dad might be alive and the reason for the energy surge.

Roy will travel from Earth to the moon and then to Mars and the research laboratory. He's accompanied by Colonel Pruitt (Donald Sutherland), an old friend of Roy's father, who still has the spark of adventure in him, despite his advanced age. This leads Roy to wonder if a "normal" life is even possible for those who have dedicated themselves to adventure and exploration—an observation of which we're made bluntly aware through Roy's near-constant narration of events. They're thoughtful musings, at least—about Roy's inner life, the state of these worlds, his thoughts regarding his father, of course.

In fairness, we do kind of need the narration, if only because Roy is the strong and silent type, who has become an expert at evading any inquiry about his feelings (He only recites what has happened during routine, mandatory psychiatric evaluations, performed by computer). More than fairness, though, Pitt's performance as the stone-faced explorer is far more nuanced than just an emotion-free man. There's more a sense that he's always trying to keep his feelings in check, but that capacity has become a routine at this point in his life. In the key scene of the character's development, he finds himself unable to do that, when he opens his heart to the father who left him three decades ago.

All of this is relatively straightforward, although one has to admire Gray willingness to put such an emphasis on the character over the various wonders surrounding him. If those character beats become a bit repetitive, the film's depiction of these worlds and the perils of the journey certainly prevent the narrative itself from becoming that.

The moon, in addition to becoming a tourist trap filled with shops and chain restaurants, is at war over resources, with pirates roaming the barren land on rovers (There's a chase/shootout that's exciting because Gray, who is resolute in keeping space silent, forces us to concentrate on the sights of it). A rescue mission aboard a ship en route to Mars turns into a horror show of a routine scientific experiment gone awry, and the colony on Mars itself is one of imposing gloom and lifeless concrete.

One could easily say that Gray's film is a series of contradictions, constantly battling each other. It's a character piece that's also a big-budget science-fiction extravaganza, and as such, its action sequences, as engaging and creative as they may be, seem completely at odds with the introspective nature of the material. That's true, but regardless, Ad Astra is daring in its devotion to the inner world of a character traveling through the extraordinary and terrifying worlds of outer space.

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