What does one make of a movie likeSpaceman , one of the most anticipated sci - fi movies of 2024 ? The fresh sci - fi drama has everything it needs to be a memorable addition to what has so far been a lackluster class for pic . It ’s Swedish director Johan Renck ’s follow - up to 2019’sChernobyl , the acclaimed HBO miniseries that is as visually well - design as it is narratively watertight . On top of that , it stars Adam Sandler in one of his rare striking roles , leading a casting of big - screen heavyweights like current Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan , Paul Dano , and Isabella Rossellini .
At the marrow ofSpaceman , though , there is an vacancy — and not the emotionally profound sort that Hanuš , Dano ’s extraterrestrial wanderer ( more on that later ) oft mentions in his unofficial therapy sessions with Sandler ’s willingly deport cosmonaut , Jakub . In the canyon of Hollywood sci - fi cinema , Spacemansits squarely in the same family as contemplative drama likeAd AstraandSolaris(both reading ) , but it lacks the same weight . It ’s an admirably introspective cinema , but it unwittingly reveals itself as an underbaked character study by advert often to a deepness that does n’t exist beneath its story .
Based on Jaroslav Kalfař ’s 2017 novel , Spaceman of Bohemia , the new Netflix archetype stick to Sandler ’s Jakub , a Czech astronaut , as he embarks on a yearlong , solo delegacy to look into a unusual cloud of cosmic , purplish debris that lie beyond Jupiter . While alone on his ship , he tries in vain to contact his fraught wife , Lenka ( Mulligan ) , who — unbeknownst to him — has make up one’s mind to end their marriage . As his Earth - free-base master , led by a technician named Peter ( Kunal Nayyar ) and a high - level administrator known only as Commissioner Tuma ( Rossellini ) , attempt to keep Lenka ’s determination from reach him , Jakub discover himself join on his journey by Dano ’s Hanuš , an alien spider from the rootage of time .
Hanuš excuse that he was draw to Jakub by the sounds of his ship and has resolve to help the cosmonaut come to terms with his loneliness . His attempts to do so are met with constant resistance from Jakub , whose puerility memories growing up in the pre and post - Velvet Revolution era of the previous ’ eighty and other ’ 90s Czechoslovakia , as well as his many present moment of squandered connectedness with Lenka , have shaped him into an unpleasant , uncongenial man . However , the closer he and Hanuš drift to the cosmic swarm Jakub was in the first place task with investigating , the more compelled he feel to reconnect to the life he ’s hazardously close to losing on Earth .
Hanuš and Jakub ’s conversations are the spine of Colby Day’sSpacemanscreenplay and the only thing that come nigh to render it a clear structure . The film is for the most part plotless . It occupy its minutes by bounce from moments on Jakub ’s ship to strain computer memory from his past times and a few present - day scene in which Mulligan ’s Lenka contemplate the state of their spousal relationship . While its shapelessness makes it feel a bit meandering at clock time , Spacemanmercifully does n’t run long enough for its insistent rhythms to grow too tiresome . That ’s partly due to the meditative way Renck brings to the film , which involve patient tv camera take that drift around its character as they internally spiral and muse on the disappointing totality of their life up to the present moment .
As visually mesmerize as it often is , Spacemancan’t escape the shortcoming of its playscript and story . The film use its infinite set to underline the emotional distance between Mulligan ’s Lenka and Sandler ’s Jakub , but their Earth - set romance is never developed enough to genuinely groundSpaceman . Neither Lenka nor Jakub is research much beyond their relationship , thus rendering both as one - note figures without any identifiable personalities . Through Dano ’s Hanuš , the photographic film chance endless ways to discourse Jakub ’s emotional hangups , but it wastes the little relatability of his history by prioritizing its many noble-minded message about the grandness of connection in a vast , mysterious universe over the development of his character .
In front of the camera , Sandler succeeds at bringing the same deeply human gravitas to his performance as Jakub that he has displayed in previous life history highlighting likePunch - Drunk Love , The Meyerowitz Stories , andHustle . Both he and Mulligan initially palpate miscast as a couplet of Czech lovers , but their deal star index force you to look past that detail . The two actors make watchingSpacemaneasier than it should be , in fact , given how little they ’re allowed to do throughout the film . Dano , meanwhile , turns in an empathic , subtly alien vocal performance as Hanuš , who similarly is n’t draw so much as a living , breathe character as he is solely a vessel forSpaceman‘s greater thematic ideas .
Its cast ’s contribution ultimately are n’t enough to makeSpacemanstand out . The picture seems contented to coast along for much of its runtime solely on the durability of its adept and the few insightful interactions that litter its first two acts , all of which get before it all spins loose in a climax that is as befuddling as it is tonally inconsistent . It may masquerade as a relationship dramatic event about a marriage ceremony that is on the brink of falling apart , butSpacemannever gives viewers enough to latch onto — or to prevent it from floating hopelessly in place for 107 minutes .
Spacemanis streaming now onNetflix .
