Lucy in the Sky

Starring: Natalie Portman, Jon Hamm, Zazie Beetz, Dan Stevens, Pearl Amanda Dickson, Ellen Burstyn, Colman Domingo, Jeffrey Donovan, Tig Notaro, Nick Offerman
Directed by: Noah Hawley
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Science Fiction
2019

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: After returning to Earth, an astronaut (Natalie Portman) begins struggling with reality. Starting an affair with another astronaut (Jon Hamm) doesn't help matters.

Review:

Tim: Noah Hawley has been on my radar over the last several years. I was absolutely floored by his television series, "Legion"- it was one of the most bizarre, wonderful shows I've ever seen. I'd heard good things about "Fargo", so it seemed like he was a true up-and-coming talent. When I heard he was making his feature film directorial debut, and it was starring Natalie Portman as an astronaut losing her grip on reality, I was overjoyed. It felt like a perfect melding together of incredible pieces that would result in a powerful film. Unfortunately, Lucy in the Sky is a bad movie.

I guess if I'm being truly descriptive, this is a bad movie whose wonderful cast saves it from being truly bad. It ends up kind of an "okay" film, but not one I have any intention of revisiting. It marks an inauspicious film debut for Hawley. As much I as loved his work on "Legion" and still believe in his talent, you can't really take any other course except to blame the director. This is a mess of a movie.

I remember reading about the true story upon which this film is "inspired" by. It was a crazy story. This movie really doesn't follow the true events, but uses them as inspiration for its own story. It's kind of a weird decision. The true story is bizarre and would make a good movie, I believe. However, it's not so incredible that it holds up as a work of fiction. Of all the stories about astronauts returning to Earth, why would you tell this one? The script seems fascinated by the idea that astronauts return to Earth and struggle to transition back, after leaving the planet and seeing the grandeur of our world from offplanet. That's an incredible premise to explore (by all accounts from actual astronauts, it's not true, but still). If you were interested in exploring that, why would you tell the story about this particular women, who had an affair with another astronaut, lost it over their relationship, and drives across the country to confront him, ultimately resulting in an arrest, an embarrassment for NASA, and.... not much else. The story isn't nearly as interesting as one that could have been written without paying tribute to the real events. It feels like this would have been a much better movie without trying to connect it to real events.

I'm going to be pretty harsh on Hawley in this review because I believe he failed here and I'm disappointed. However, I do want to give him some credit, too. Visually, he's incredible as a director. The visuals in "Legion" were off-the-charts amazing. Here, that same theme continues- this is very often a beautiful movie to look at. There's a vertigo-inspiring quality to the movie that helps illustrate this astronaut's descent away from normalcy. The shots in space, the depiction of stars, it all looks really, really good.

The problem is absolutely script and direction. The movie boasts a strong cast who give good performances. Natalie Portman is undoubtedly a talented actress. She embraces this role and you really can't fault her for her performance- it's quite strong. Jon Hamm was very enjoyable and believable as the charismatic astronaut Portman's character has an affair with. I like Zazie Beetz and thought she was decent here. I loved Dan Stevens in "Legion", so I was excited to see him re-team with Hawley. However, he comes across as a bit too earnest here. He acts well, but I never quite believed his performance. It felt too naive, too one-dimensional. Pearl Amanda Dickson added a strong supporting performance. I loved seeing the great Ellen Burstyn and she was able to steal most of her scenes. I really enjoy Colman Domingo from "Fear the Walking Dead" and Tig Notaro from "Star Trek: Discovery" and thought they added to the movie here. Nick Offerman works in a very small role and I enjoyed Jeffrey Donovan even more than I expected. The cast is really strong and they deserve a ton of credit. I didn't like Lucy in the Sky much at all. I considered an even worse rating, but I ultimately decided that the cast was good enough to inch the movie towards respectability.

Make no mistake, Lucy in the Sky isn't good. It's not even close to good. It's kind of cool how they used The Beatles' song for the title and it's used well within the film. However, the movie itself offers up a flimsy script that underwhelms almost continuously after the first 25 minutes. The film is way too long and it's never as interesting as it believes itself to be. It feels like it had no vision, instead telling little vignettes strung together. The climax is never as compelling as it needed to be. The movie ends and you feel emptiness. I'm fairly disappointed because I kind of believed Hawley could be the next great director to emerge. I still believe he has the talent to accomplish that, but he's quite simply not there. Even great directors make bad movies, and I'm sincerely hoping this first one is just an initial misstep.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



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