Netflix’s Spaceman Didn’t Stick the Landing
Much like Adam Sandler’s big, clunky rocket ship, Spaceman drifted off into oblivion and never came back. Director Johan Renck had an arsenal that most directors dream of, with an ensemble of Adam Sandler, Carey Mulligan, and Paul Dano. The film is set in space, a location that audiences go crazy over (cough, cough, Interstellar) and it’s also based off of Jaroslav Kalfař’s novel Spaceman of Bohemia, so by all accounts, you’d think this movie would be set up for success. In a disappointing turn, this film never blasts off successfully.
The film begins six months into a solitary research mission to the edge of the solar system. An astronaut, Jakub, played by the wonderful Adam Sandler, realizes that the marriage he left behind might not be waiting for him when he returns to Earth. He is desperately trying to fix things with his wife, Lenka, played by Carey Mulligan, via a video call system on his ship. We are then introduced to a giant alien spider — yes a giant spider! — that mysteriously crawled into his ship. The spider, who goes by Hanuš (voiced by Pual Dano), somehow becomes Jakub’s live-in therapist as he works with Jakub to make sense of what went wrong before it is too late.
The first half of the movie gives off a claustrophobic feeling as we were stuck in Jakub’s small, confined ship. While there were flashbacks to memories with his wife, it was through a spider’s vision and eyesight, which is narrow, foggy, and all around disorienting. Sandler worked with what he had and was remarkable in this film. Sandler has always had an innate ability to convey raw emotion, which was crucial in portraying Jakub. Although, we knew that going in as he’s previously shown he’s a force to be reckoned with and is multifaceted with his breathtaking performance in the 2019 film Uncut Gems.
While Sandler’s performance itself was captivating, there was only so much Sandler could do with a script that simply fell flat. I found myself wanting to know more about Jakub and the mission itself and why his character felt compelled to leave his wife. We don’t recieve much of a thorough backstory and the film didn’t delve into Jakub’s character as much as it could have. Mulligan’s character Lenka was repetitive and force fed lines throughout the film that I’ve heard before and was very much pigeon-holed in the “tired, angry woman” trope. It’s always frustrating to watch. We need more layered female characters! I felt as though this film was villianizing Lenka, making her out to be a character you didn’t want to side with, forcing us to somehow relate to Jakub with no context to do so. Jakub was obviously our main character, but the only thing I could relate to with him was his effortless tries in figuring out if Hanuš was all a dream, because I too was wondering when the fever dream of this film would be over. With the array of talented actors and endless cinematography possibilities, you would think this film would at least be entertaining and fun to look at, if anything.
Spaceman had potential, but it’s rocket wasn’t firing on all cylinders. Spaceman is now on Netflix.
