The Space Between Us

Starring: Asa Butterfield, Gary Oldman, Carla Gugino, Britt Robertson, B.D. Wong, Janet Montgomery, Scott Takeda
Directed by: Peter Chelsom
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Romance
2017

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: The first person (Asa Butterfield) born on Mars travels to Earth, where he falls in love with a street smart girl (Britt Robertson).

Review:

Tim: The Space Between Us is a weird little movie. It's a science fiction love story, but it never quite knows what it wants to be. Is it a love story first? Science fiction? Adventure? Drama? Coming-of-age story? It mashes up a ton of genres, but it didn't feel like there was a clear vision guiding the movie. As such, it feels too disjointed to really work. I appreciated the somewhat ambitious effort to tell a different story, but each individual ingredient didn't add up to a delicious stew. It was too jarring, too unmelodious to really work.

The beginning part of the film is really focused on the science fiction aspect. A team of astronauts flies to Mars. One of the astronauts is pregnant and you have the first baby born on Mars. What would that be like? What would a childhood on Mars look like, surrounded by scientists? The film explores this in interesting fashion. It's legitimately worth exploring- what would the isolation do to a child? What would it be like to be so disconnected from Earth? It's a fascinating query. Then, through a series of events, this child travels to Earth. Again- pretty interesting. What would happen if a Mars-born human being arrived on Earth. Would they fit in? Be hopelessly out of touch? These scenes were played far too much for laughs (and they weren't funny), but then rather than being a science fiction film, the movie kind of morphs into a fish-out-of-water story. Then our main character falls in love and the romance/adventure aspects take over. Towards the end of the film, it becomes more a drama/melodrama. It's really an interesting journey, although it's not always a good one.

Asa Butterfield is fairly good in the lead role. He was a great child actor, but he's in that awkward phase right now. It'll be interesting to see if he can move through it successfully, like a Joseph Gordon-Levitt, or if he'll get tripped up, like a Dakota Fanning. I didn't love his performance, but he works well enough. Britt Robertson was too old to play his love interest, but she was decent. She always has moments where her talent is stretched too far and I start to question the authenticity of her performance. She's not a bad actress, but she hasn't understood her limitations thus far. Still, I was glad to see her here. Gary Oldman brings a great deal of class and talent to the film. It's not quite as meaty a role as he deserves, but he does make the film better. Carla Gugino gives a better performance than her role deserved. I appreciated that she worked so hard to deliver a strong performance with such an average role. The cast was surprisingly strong for a movie like this, but even still, it was more of a "B+" than anything in the "A" category.

Besides toggling around through different genres, the story is fairly forgettable. It's a pretty straightforward love story, although the various contextual differences at least makes it feel different. I can't say I really cared about the characters at all. I was mildly interested in what would happen to them, but nothing approaching any real emotional connection was present. The movie just felt totally average from start to finish. The movie is too long at 2 hours (it could have been at least 11 minutes shorter), so it definitely drags in places. While it was an ambitious attempt (which I do appreciate), the film never really gets above decent status.

While The Space Between Us explores some interesting themes, it ultimately proves to be too generic of a film. It feels like an effort from an early-career director, so I was very surprised Peter Chelsom had directed 8 other films. I'm not sure what happened here, but he wasn't able to launch this into the stratosphere. It really just fizzles out.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Passengers, Ender's Game, Tomorrowland