One Mann’s Movies review of Lucy in the Sky (2019).
Bob the Movie Man’s Rating:
Certification:
US: R. UK: 15.
“Lucy in the Sky” sees Natalie Portman playing the eponymous Lucy Cola, a NASA astronaut who has achieved her ambition of reaching space and experienced the enormity of the universe first hand. Her mind is officially blown.
So much so that, on returning to earth, nothing seems ‘enough’ any more: her family; her comfortable home; her life.
She becomes desperate to be selected for the next program… to get that literal ‘high’ all over again. So desperate in fact that her mind and morals burn up on trying to ‘re-enter’.
Yet another Joker in the pack. Lucy (Natalie Portman) eyes up younger competition in the form of Erin (Zazie Beetz). (Source: Fox Searchlight Pictures).
Portman is perfectly cast.
You look at the career choices of Natalie Portman, and they have often revolved around cool and detached woman: “Black Swan” and “Jackie” for example. Here, looking incredibly fit and strong (as you would expect from an astronaut at the peak of her powers) , she again plays something of an ice-queen. She is – of course – brilliant at it.
Starring with her here are the ever-watchable Jon Hamm, as fellow astronaut Mark Goodwin, the omni-present – at the moment – Zazie Beetz as a fellow program competitor and Dan Stevens (from “Downton”) as her exasperated colleague and husband Drew. (Stevens was COMPLETELY UNRECOGNISABLE to me in this movie…. just like in “Beauty and the Beast“! To the extent that I had to wind back the film from the end-titles after seeing his name to check!).
A revealing conversation. Natalie Portman and Jon Hamm. (Source: Fox Searchlight Pictures).
Not a Sci-Fi film. Not an action film.
This was always a film that was going to struggle to identify its audience. Yes, it starts in space, but it is in NO WAY a “Sci-Fi” movie (which is one of its tags on IMDB. Shameful!). This is a drama about a woman progressively losing her grip on reality: almost a PTSD movie, but without the “S” being “T” in the normal sense of things.
Wiggin’ out on a road trip. (Source: Fox Searchlight Pictures).
Different aspects of the same story.
Lucy’s ‘other-worldliness’ is reflected in the aspect ratio of the movie, which varies from a claustrophobic ‘old-TV’ format 4:3 ratio to a ratio bordering on ‘Cinemascope’. (This makes for a very challenging watch on a small airline TV screen, as I was doing!). It’s a motif that’s obviously meant to reflect Lucy’s drifting grip on reality. But it eventually gets irritating…. I had the sense that first-time feature director Noah Hawley was ‘trying too hard’ for something quirky and different.
Far more successful is a ‘green-screened’ trippy sequence seeing Lucy being transported to a hospital bedside to the rendition of The Beatles iconic song, performed by Lucy Hannigan (listen here). It’s dreamlike and unsettling.
In fact, one of the high-spots of the movie for me was Jeff Russo‘s score, which I have made a mental note to make sure to listen to again on Spotify. It’s more electronica than orchestral but matches the mood of the film really well.
A ride that is in need of bumpers. Goodwin (Hamm) teaches Lucy (Portman) a few new curves. (Source: Fox Searchlight Pictures).
But, here’s the thing.
I didn’t enjoy it.
The problem is (and no spoilers here) that Portman’s Lucy is such a downright BITCH that it is impossible to warm to her as the movie’s star. There is, in fact, only one of the characters that you really side with, and she’s the one doing the most damage to them.
This shouldn’t be a problem to the story, since the film is reflecting (loosely) true events: the astronauts in question were Lisa Nowak and William Oefelein. And there are lots of ‘feel-bad’ films about mental illness (“One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, for example) that stand on their own merits. But this one just seemed to be a fairly miserable and destructive story that didn’t have enough of a payoff – either positive or negative – to merit the journey.
This was disappointing, since after hearing the premise, I’d been looking forward to this one.
Concerned colleagues. Kate Mounier (Tig Notaro) and Jim Hunt (Jeffrey Donovan). (Source: Fox Searchlight Pictures).
Summary
For those who love movies, and the way movies are structured, it is an interesting watch. But it is not by any stretch an entertaining mainstream movie. The director Noah Hawley will need to do better in the “commercially-appealing” stakes for his next film: since he’s been (rather surprisingly) given the helm for the sequel to “Star Trek: Beyond“.
Trailer:
The trailer for “Lucy in the Sky” is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQP-L2pJzmk .
