Stowaway (2021)

Starring: Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim, Shamier Anderson, Toni Collette
Directed by: Joe Penna
Rating: TV-MA
Genre: Drama, Science Fiction, Thriller
2021

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Three astronauts on a journey to Mars are shocked to discover they have a stowaway on board.

Review:

Tim: I was intrigued by Stowaway. I like Anna Kendrick and while she has range as an actress, I have to admit I never expected to see her as an astronaut. This little movie gave her the chance and it offers up some worthwhile ideas. However, the execution felt somewhat lacking. The movie itself never quite lives up to the promise of his premise. This is somewhat surprising, given the level of talent involved.

I'm most disappointed that director Joe Penna couldn't deliver a solid movie here. I really enjoyed his feature film directorial debut, Arctic. That was another movie featuring a small cast in an isolated, dangerous location. Whereas that movie rode Mads Mikkelsen's incredible performance, this movie can't get to that same level. Penna showed a lot of talent in Arctic and while there are some truly strong moments in this film, the movie as a whole felt too uneven to be very good. That being said, I believe this movie straddles the line between decent and good and just falls on the lower end. It's a movie I wouldn't mind watching again, which isn't common for only decent films. Still, it has a few too many flaws to truly work.

The movie does have a great premise. Three astronauts are traveling to Mars and they discover an unintentional stowaway. At first, this doesn't seem like the biggest deal in the world (except for the guy unexpectedly traveling to Mars), but it creates a series of issues that threatens to ruin the mission and result in the death of everyone onboard the spacecraft. I enjoyed how the movie built up to this point, how the intensity and severity of the situation increased as the movie went on. Now, there are a few things I just found hard to believe. In the face of having multiple redundant systems to avoid catastrophe, it felt a little farfetched that a few events could put the astronauts in such peril. I recognize that this kind of thing does happen in real life, so I'm not discounting that. I wish the movie worked just a bit harder to convince us of the realism of this situation. I had to shrug and suspend my disbelief a few too many times. This is actually a surprisingly big sticking point for me. I'm not suggesting this movie needed to be 100% authentic, but I found it really difficult to buy many situations the film throws at us. That results in a strong premise feeling like it unravels as the movie progresses. The script has great ideas, but it asks too much of the audience. By the end of the movie, the story starts to feel a bit silly. This is the biggest reason why I couldn't quite get myself to like this movie.

The cast is really strong. As mentioned, I like Anna Kendrick and I love that she got to play this role. She does a really good job and I believed her in the role. She's able to bring humanity to the role and make you care about her character. I love that Kendrick was so central to the climax. It was great fun seeing her in this slightly unexpected role and it reminds us that Kendrick can do so much. I always love seeing Daniel Dae Kim, going back to his days on Lost. Kim is an underrated actor and he added a lot in his supporting role. Toni Collette is such a strong actress, she gives a good performance here. She never overshadows the rest of the cast, which she probably could have done. I also have to give immense credit to Shamier Anderson. I don't think I've ever seen him act before (or if so, it was in a role that went unrecognized by me). He was fantastic in this role. He brought so much to the cast- this quiet intensity, these emotional depths that the other characters don't quite get to. Anderson was the highlight of the cast for me and I didn't expect that to be the case. I really loved his performance here. These four actors make up the entirety of the cast and they are all so strong. If you're looking for reasons to watch this movie, the cast is #1.

The visual effects were good, but it's obvious the budget wasn't that large for this Netflix film. Compare this movie to a Gravity, Interstellar, or Ad Astra and you can tell that Penna had to stretch the budget. The visuals never detract from the story, but they don't elevate it, either. Penna does a few impressive things, especially towards the end of the movie, but it always felt like I was watching a movie. The visuals never really stunned us, never really gave the story an epic feel. That doesn't help the movie, obviously.

In the end, I enjoyed Stowaway but there were too many things that bothered me about it to claim it was a good movie. The acting was really strong and there are so many great moments, but the story never really holds together like it should. The film was too long at 1 hour, 56 minutes and it dragged in too many places. It's a slow burn film that burned a bit too slowly. It's a decent movie that has some really strong elements that never quite gel together the way they should.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend:
Ad Astra, Gravity, Interstellar, Apollo 13