Lucy in the Sky

When the story broke of astronaut Lisa Nowak, and the struggles she encountered after a NASA mission, it wasn’t hard to see studio execs seeing it as a perfect, stranger-than fiction tale, ripe for a big screen retelling. The resultant ‘inspired by real events’ film has had a tough route to screen, and it really shows – what makes an unbelievable headline, does not automatically translate into a compelling movie.

News of Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion) writing and directing for Natalie Portman, with this source as a basis, was quite the mouthwatering prospect. The film starts as somewhat of a mood-piece, and could easily be seen as something of a companion to Damien Chazelle’s First Man. When it begins to introduce more traditional plot elements, however, the two competing things don’t marry. The wrestling of the real-life events and the slower, more contemplative tone that had come before is problematic.

Portman struggles under a southern drawl and bad wig. She initially gives that sort of underwater, glass-eyed performance that relays her detachment on her return from her mission. She suffers the same issues as the film as a whole – the transition from detachment to derangement is one that is never quite reconciled.

The criticism that you don’t buy Portman as an astronaut is a lazy one, but also valid – we don’t see enough characteristics to suggest she’s at all suitable. A brief shot of her fixing some plumbing for her Gran is an attempt to address this, but unlike the likelihood of her being a NASA protege, it’s a little too obvious.

Disappointingly, there are further basic filmmaking issues; this script occasionally falls into lazy exposition, where you’d expect better from Hawley. Time-jumps are confusing and poorly communicated. Then there’s the fact that the whole thing’s clearly had production issues – including title changes – making the introduction of The Beatles’ song of the title so bizarre.

From those involved, and given the subject matter, this could have been something pretty special. Instead we’re dealt a real damp squib that can never quite pull its two competing personalities into something satisfying and cohesive. Cool poster though.