I do what I do because of my dad
Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 50 Films of 2019
#46 : Ad Astra
Brad Pitt goes intergalactic in search of long-lost dad Tommy Lee Jones in James Gray’s thrilling Freudian mashup of Apocalypse Now and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
I have heard of this but never felt the need to watch it - and I find it interesting that it describes it as a mashup of Apocalypse Now and 2001: A Space Odyssey. There's no doubting that both of those films are classic "cinema" and contain several iconic scenes - but, they both also contain long scenes which are utter, utter bobbins. So it very much depends on which bits they choose to mash up and there's 2 hours of it, so it could go well or it could go very, very badly.
And well, it's got an intriguing and extremely good looking beginning with Brad falling to Earth from an orbital platform as a result of an unknown accident. But - it turns out the accident might have been caused by Brad's dad who disappeared 20 years ago. No way! Who'd have thought it?!? So Brad needs to go and track down his dad. And maybe find himself during the process as well? And errr, well - that's pretty much it.
A lot of it is either utterly bonkers or content free - but somehow it managed to still hold my attention (for most of it, anyway!). Which surprised me. It does feel very Apocalypse Now - going on a journey to find a military figure who may or may not have gone a bit mad and having various "encounters/adventures" on the way (I wouldn't have been surprised in the slightest if they'd come across a random French speaking colony). And, unsurprisingly, a lot of the scenery is quite 2001-like. Some scenes are included simply for the sake of showing some cool stuff that happens in space - this would have been fine 20 years ago, but feels somewhat redundant now. Having said that, the fire extinguisher being shot and whizzing around the spaceship was still cool.
Redundant or not, it all looks very good - a lot of the design manages to be both futuristic and retro at the same time. I'm really not convinced by some of the physics at the end, but I also don't really care whether it's accurate or not - the film's definitely getting a bit silly by that point. The sound is generally good but makes some odd choices at times - I appreciate it's trying to be space-y, but surely there's no reason why two people talking in a room at normal pressure is going to sound any different?
Brad Pitt has to do an awful lot of not acting in this film - I don't believe he's acting badly, but he's just been told not to be expressive. Tommy Lee Jones just has to act confused and Donald Sutherland has to act tired - pretty much the only person who gets to obviously act in this is Ruth Negga, who is reliable as always but is only in it for about 5 minutes. All of which left me feeling this film had an awful lot of acting talent doing not very much.
The story (as much as there is) and the direction are both fine, but so obviously homage-y (that's a word, right?) that you are left thinking "didn't you want to make your own film?" - maybe that was the whole point to it, maybe not. Wikipedia's main comments on the film are on how it was a commercial failure but my favourite bit is the critical comment that it "is one of the most beautiful films of the year, even when it makes little sense and even when Brad Pitt's performance veers between one of his all-time best and one of his all-time not-best" which accurately reflects my opinion, although I don't blame Brad for his performance.
Overall, I'd say this is a strangely compelling film at times but somewhat of a missed opportunity, particularly with regards to the director putting his own stamp on things. If you lurve Apocalypse Now or 2001: A Space Odyssey then I'd be happy enough to recommend this to you and if you like sci-fi-ish things, then you might like this - otherwise I'd suggest you give it a swerve. I can, for instance, assure you that Mrs Reed would absolutely hate it.
At the time of writing, it's available to buy or rent in all the usual places - and the presence of Mr Pitt suggests to me it's likely to stay available for some time yet. Better sci-fi and/or Brad Pitt films are available though - eg 12 Monkeys or World War Z.
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