Lucy in the Sky

Following on the foot steps of Joaquin Phoenix who stars in Joker and Rene Zellweger who stars in Judy comes Natalie Portman in another movie that feels like the lead is trying to win an Oscar. As a fan of NASA it's a movie I'm glad I saw. It seems that their is a psychological break down that can happen to astronauts who have been to space and this is about one of them, a fictional story based on real events. As Lucy is a space walker freshly back on Earth who goes a little mad in her attempt to get back up there. I'm familiar with the withdrawal the chosen few get, when they see Earth in it's entirely than have to come back to the planet, but this movie talks about how bad it can get. Watching this unfold on the silver screen is not as interesting as it sounds, despite how much great acting talent they have all over this thing. If the condition is real, the filmmakers spent way too much time being respectful of it rather than making a great movie. My only interest in the film is as someone who thinks being an astronaut is cool, but the movie is dull.

First of all, the only sci-fi part of the film is that the Space Shuttle program never ended. Second, as many other reviewers noticed, the movie starts really well, then it fizzles... it just fizzles. One can actually hear the feeble flatulent sound of the ideas in the movie going absolutely nowhere. The difference between the beginning and the ending is so vast that your mind is blown away and you go crazy, not unlike being in space for the first time.

It's a frightening window into what men see strong women as being: rigid, driven, single minded, egocentric, scary and ultimately going nuts whenever they need to chill and get the task done. It's Natalie Portman going crazy again on a difficult job, despite all the Southern cliches about no nonsense old nanas, toughing it out and working twice as hard as men to get to the same point and the mixed and meaningless metaphors uttered on a piano sound background. And why does she go crazy? Because of a man. Well, amongst other things that also happen because of men, like her marriage to a perfectly nice husband that does not look like Jon Hamm.

Bottom line: if you want a movie so deep that you will scour IMDb comments to understand what the hell happened, yet so superficial as to be 95% cliches, this is the thing for you. And no, Dan Stevens does NOT go crazy too and break the Universe. That's something else.

I truly wanted to love this movie, on the exterior it looked amazing, it had a promising plot, amazing actors and the creator of the Fargo tv series Noah Hawley on the director's chair.

What could possibly go wrong?

Interesting plot wasted on total boredom, pretty sure that they got some of the science wrong and despite some amazing acting from Natalie Portman, Ellen Burstyn, Jon Hamm, etc. And good cinematography, they couldn't unfortunately save this forgettable mess.

In short: An Oscar-bait movie that you will forget the day after.

The real story behind this film is so much more interesting, along with the actual people involved. This easily could have been an engaging study of the real woman, instead of the vague cypher that camera tricks do nothing to explain or enhance.

Lucy in the Sky is inspired by true events in the most artificial sense. Telling the story of an Astronaut dealing her own sanity. The film means well. It clearly has something to say, but I fails to give anything to us in a meaningful way.

Natalie Portman gives it her all, playing a character that is losing herself and has a lot of emotional baggage. She's terrific, but sadly the rest of the film is not. Lucy in the Sky is a miscalculated mess, with so many things in it and so little as well that it's hard to remain engaged.

The movie feels empty, emotionless and very dull. The only thing of visual interest are when then the aspect ratio of the film changes throughout the film. We go from 4:3 to 16:9 and more. The screen shrinks grows and it all seems based on how our character is feeling at the time. It's interesting, but proves to be a large distraction.

The film ultimately has nothing to really offer. There's no incite, no intrigue and it's ultimately empty. Natalie Portman does her best as do the rest of the cast, but it ends up just being a failed film with good ideas executed poorly.