Spaceman

Grade: B

Adam Sandler has played enough dramatic roles, that I’m no longer fazed when I see him in a non-comedy. The same thing happened with Jim Carrey about 15 years ago. He has come a long way from singing about his red-hooded sweatshirt. If Spaceman had come out in the 2000s or earlier, I’d be half-expecting him to break into something like Cajun Man, or do his usual nonsensical petulant yelling – but this is nice, grounded, understated work from him. I saw hints of Brad Pitt’s stoic astronaut from Ad Astra.

He plays Jakub, who is almost halfway through a year-long mission that is taking him to Jupiter to study the mysterious Chopra cloud. Back on Earth, his pregnant wife Lenka (Carey Mulligan) has recorded a video message telling him she can’t take his absence anymore, and is officially leaving him. Jakub’s colleagues at Mission Control decide not to send him this message – fearing that he has a lot on his plate, mentally, already, and he doesn’t need to have something like this dumped on him right now. So, Jakub is left to think she’s just chronically ignoring him – not answering his many calls on the FaceTime-like system they have set up.

He gets a visitor on the spacecraft, in the form of a giant spider with six eyes and at least eight arms, which he names Hanus. Paul Dano provides the voice, with ever-so-gentle soft-spokenness. Hanus comes in peace, with no plans to attack or frighten. He is lonely too, and is there to provide company, counsel, and companionship. The most ominous thing he says is “I prefer you not place your hands on me.” I could see this, in a lesser movie, perhaps a horror, getting a predictable payoff – in a “mess around and find out” fashion. But here, it’s followed up in a touching way, when they eventually get comfortable enough around each other to do a full-on hug.

Hanus is interested in helping Jakub through his marital problems back home. We see various memories of his, played out in a trippy, funhouse mirror camera technique. I could have done without this trickery; the scenes would have landed at least as well without the surreal photography. But this is a hypnotic, intriguing film that never gets too loud, in sound effects or emotions.

Spaceman is so lofty, toeing the line of pretentiousness, but never completely spills over into silliness. But what we’re left with is an interesting, haunting character study, with some beautiful top-notch space imagery. It took a little while, but it’s a pleasure to finally see the Sandman start to grow up.

Grade: B