This movie is all kinds of weird. I will put aside my Czech bias of this movie, based on a Czech novel (Spaceman of Bohemia), and the fact this movie contains only some tiny Czech Easter eggs, but the main roles are an American man and an English lady with no attempt to do any accent is a choice… But again, let’s put that aside. Spaceman’s biggest problem is that we now have seen movies “just like this” (like the already mentioned Ad Astra (2019, my review here)) but done better. I am not just talking about the technical side; I am talking about the themes this movie tries to explore, and I don’t think they all land.
Let’s get something clear – Adam Sandler did a good job. I won’t hold the fact he isn’t Brad Pitt against him because I don’t think he did a bad job. The same goes for anyone else, especially Carey Mulligan, who uplifts what, otherwise, could have been a thankless job. I don’t think this will come as a shock to anyone, but I think she is the best actor in this movie, closely seconded by Sandler. The only reason Paul Dano isn’t any higher for me is the fact that we only hear him, but I won’t lie; you will remember his role. Sure, he is doing “just voice-acting”, but that’s a good reminder of how important voice-acting is and if done properly, it can move you, even if you never see the actor.
Where this movie lost me a bit was the split between Earth and Sandler’s space mission. Instead of those two storylines complementing each other, they almost seem to disturb the flow of Spaceman. Every time it gets interesting in space, we go back to Earth. That applies vice-versa every time something happened down there, on the Earth that I liked, we would go back to space. I can’t precisely put my finger on it, but despite those storylines being linked, they seemed disjointed. This is, for example, where Ad Astra understood what it must do and focused the majority of the film on Brad Pitt’s character and the loneliness of space.
Because Spaceman covers (or wants to cover) many of the same themes, from loneliness to realisation about humanity and how you might try to improve yourself as human to the people you care about the most, the themes are there. However, they never hit me as much as they should have. Spaceman wants to be this space drama about many complex things, but when the movie finished, I was… unmoved. I can’t say I was bored per se, and this isn’t a bad movie by any means, but it just felt a bit hollow and disjointed, and even incorporating the Rusalka myth, I wasn’t sure whether that symbolism did anything for this movie.
And this is where my Czech bias I put aside comes back, just for this paragraph or two. It’s weird to see some Czech actors but not in any major roles. It’s fascinating that studio people want to adapt this Czech book but then seem to do the bare minimum. Yeah, it was shot in Czech Republic. Yes, there are some Czech actors in mostly tiny roles and some Easter eggs (cukroví, aka Xmas Sweets Sandler has with him, CzechConnect etc.) But this Czech element ultimately doesn’t add anything to it. It’s still Sandler talking in his voice, the same for the other actors. Yes, they have Czech names, but they never explain why this “Czech” spaceman doesn’t have Czech accent. And it’s not just about the accents; Czechs have a unique attitude towards everything. We have a way we talk, we make jokes about everything, and this movie got… none of it. The best way I can describe it is that it lacked any “attitude”. Like this film felt empty when it shouldn’t.
I have not read the book this movie is based on, so I don’t know how that “Czech” aspect is portrayed in the book. But judging by the movie, I was hoping that the fact the setting and people in it should be Czech would play bigger part in it and at the end, it didn’t. You can literally rename all the characters in this movie, change Rusalka to some other folk tale and completely remove some of those Czech Easter eggs in post-production, and this becomes another Hollywood space movie. And it’s just an ok one on top of it.
Overall, Spaceman is one of those most “it’s a movie” movies I have ever seen. What I mean is this film goes for many things and themes, and some land, whilst others do not. The actors are all capable, and nobody is truly bad, but I can’t shake the feeling I will forget this movie’s existence in couple of months, because it ultimately makes little to no impact. Everything is competently made, there is nothing major to critique, but Spaceman feels disjointed and makes you wanting more. The only thing that had for it was that Czech angle, and trust me when I tell you that adds nothing to this story. That is what makes Spaceman feel like one of the most average films you will ever see. The CGI is fine, the performances are good, the rest you will forget. In a world full of great movies exploring this topic, you can probably skip this one and watch something like Ad Astra instead.
That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!
Until next time,
Luke