Lucy dans le ciel

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.

Deep character studies can make fantastic films if you have a great performance behind the character. Movies about post-traumatic stress can add a level of drama that a lot of films simply can't. In the case of Lucy in the Sky, this is a film that deals with both for the entire duration. So, what went wrong here? This movie is proof that not every true story will make a worthwhile feature film. This is one of the worst films of the year.

Following Lucy (Natalie Portman) as she arrives back on Earth after a mission in space, a combination of wishing to go back and not wanting the life she original had begins to take her over. Not only does could that set-up lend itself to a fascinating character study, but I would have preferred it to not be a true story. As I said, this story doesn't have enough depth to lend itself to a full feature film. After setting up where this character has been and where she is now, Lucy in the Sky has nowhere to go.

Natalie Portman is completely committed to this character and is easily the biggest saving grace of this film. On top of her great performance, there is a very unique way this film is presented. With aspect ration constantly changing throughout the film, it felt like a neat little experiment to have the shape of the screen feel like it was how Lucy was feeling in the moment. Sadly, both of these elements deserved a better film to be a part of. Never once I feel that this was a great character being explored, but rather just a great character, not being explored enough, placed in a terrible film.

I could try to find positives in the fact that the space sequences are beautiful to look at in terms of visual effects, but those sequences end after the first five minutes. The addition of performers like Jon Hamm or Zazie Beetz should normally feel like an elevation, but they're ultimately underused. The climax of this film felt like it should have taken place toward the middle of the movie, because it wasn't all that exciting and like the rest of the movie, pretty much goes nowhere and makes you question what the point of this movie even was.

I'm not one who usually bashed on a film, because I like to see the good in most movies, but it's very difficult when a director like Noah Hawley, who I have loved on many television projects, chooses a poor first outing for his feature film debut. After watching this film at the Toronto International Film Festival, it became the first film that I've ever seen at a festival that I straight-up disliked. There are saving graces when it comes to Natalie Portman, the visual presentation, and even the direction by Noah Hawley, in terms of getting great performances out of everyone, but this is one of the weakest stories that I've seen on the big screen in years.

Everything was barely acceptable up until the hardware store scene, where she buys a hammer, a knife, ropes AND A WIG all items together in the same shelf of a hardware store!!! A woman's wig??? Come on, man!

These things get me out of the movie.

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.

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.