“The Midnight Sky” opens with Augustine (George Clooney) in a sterile environment – the Barbeau observatory in the Arctic Circle. It is February 2049, three weeks after “the event”, and he is alone, monitoring the Aether spacecraft. The crew is returning home after a two-year mission to see if the planet K23 “would be our future”. (Things did not go as planned).
However, when the crew of Aether Sully (Felicity Jones) fails to make contact with NASA, and the ship deviates from the course, Augustine decides that she must travel through a frozen tundra to a weather station to reestablish contact because the planet Earth it is, well, as Augustine says to Sully: “We didn’t take care of that while you were gone.”
This story, based on the book “Good Morning, Midnight”, by Lily Brooks-Dalton, has the potential to be an interesting consideration of this apocalyptic scenario. But Clooney, who drives here, doesn’t generate a pulse or a point. Your film has a visual touch, but few emotionally engaging moments. “The Midnight Sky” is mostly a tedious affair.
One of the problems is that Augustine is more interesting than the story he is in. Flashbacks reveal him as an intelligent young scientist (Ethan Peck) who sabotaged his relationship with a woman he loved (Sophie Rundel). This may be why he is now a gray-haired loner who takes pills with whiskey, receives blood transfusions and vomits every night.
But the plot makes him realize that he is not alone. A dumb young woman, Iris (Caoilinn Springall), is hiding in the observatory. He shows her where to sleep, but she comes and stays in his room. She throws peas at him over dinner to get his attention, and at one point she laughs. ç.
Just a little more exciting is the (in) action in Aether. Sully is pregnant with Commander Tom Adewole (David Oyelowo) and there are endless and embarrassing jokes between crew members – Mitchell (Kyle Chandler), Sanchez (Demián Bichir) and Maya (Tiffany Boone) – about naming the kid.
“The Midnight Sky” features some impressive CGI, and there’s a little bit of cool technology on display on a 3-D map that Augustine consults and the “virtual” experiences that Mitchell and Maya have with their families.
However, the film does not come alive until a post-space walk sequence at the end of the film, when a character has suffered an injury and blood floats in the zero-gravity atmosphere. (Another fantastic look). Unfortunately, this episode, which generates a real drama, comes after a painful song “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond, which most viewers will find “charming”. (Can there be a moratorium on the use of this worm in the cinema?)
Unfortunately, a good portion of the first half of the film portrays Augustine and Iris’s arduous journey through the Arctic tundra, and is not tense, but induces sleep. There is a curious scene of Augustine confronting a dying man and a surreal moment when a safe place for shelter proves the opposite. But these definite pieces are not very attractive. Yes, there is a beautiful underwater sequence at one point, but viewers can be focused on the cold, wintry atmosphere and wonder why Augustine and Iris are not wearing any face protection. A sequence of them lost in the wind and snow, unable to see each other, causes surprisingly little concern, even when an animal’s shadow suggests danger.
Mark L. Smith’s script does not place much emphasis on the characters, although the dialogue is sometimes quite didactic. A discussion that the Aether crew has about shooting back into space is so familiar that it is almost astonishing. Likewise, when Maya expresses concern about her first space walk, what happens is expected.
Equally poor is Alexandre Desplat’s music, which is often intrusive and used during poignant or intense moments to tell viewers what to feel.
The disadvantages of the film’s narrative point to the fact that Clooney is less secure as a director here. He offers a decent performance as a man haunted by his past, so it’s not like he can’t connect with the material. But the film doesn’t give much to the other actors. Jones, Oyelowo and Bichir all seem lost, doing an indistinct job. Watching Sully and Tom playing cards is a highlight just because the two actors try to create some chemistry. Sanchez makes a decision at the end of the film that comes out of nowhere, until he explains himself, didactically, and then his decision seems forced.
“The Midnight Sky” achieves a pleasant and sentimental moment – an unusually emotional exchange between Augustine and Sully – but Clooney comes to this almost by accident. However, it shows what that dull film could have been.
“The Midnight Sky” is available to stream from Wednesday, December 23 on Netflix.