Imagine thinking up a story about a boy born on Mars who falls in love with a girl from Earth. This boy is so determined to meet the Earth girl that he leaves Mars even though he knows it could kill him. Sounds like the foundation for a pretty epic love story, right? Now imagine that they made a movie of that story, but instead of focusing on the kids, it focused on the drama within the space program. Sounds like a missed opportunity and a boring one at that, right? That is The Space Between Us.
OK, that’s an exaggeration. The kids–played well and charmingly by Asa Butterfield and Britt Robertson –do appear throughout the film. However, their romance feels like an afterthought, swallowed up by the plot and the mechanics of getting a kid born in space to Earth. The first 40 or so minutes focus on how he got there: how his mother (Janet Montgomery) made a “mistake,” why they didn’t cancel the mission immediately, how he couldn’t handle space travel as an infant, the operations he has to go through to possibly survive on Earth, etc.
On a technical level, it’s interesting, like The Martian but set in the future with better tech. As a piece of filmmaking, however, it’s incredibly boring. Gary Oldman’s tortured, genius billionaire is a cliché wrapped in a beard and unique but stylish glasses. Carla Gugino’s astronaut/replacement mother figure character is painfully underwritten and sends a pretty uncomfortable message about working women and motherhood. There’s even BD Wong as a businessman more concerned with PR and revenue than a young boy’s life. They fight and scheme and while each actor acquits themselves well, all that drama feels like prelude, something to set the stakes for the eventual love story.
And despite the shockingly little screentime said love story gets, it’s by far the most compelling thing about the film. There’s genuine chemistry between Butterfield and Robertson—particularly when their characters banter. As played by Butterfield, Gardner is sweet and unassuming, constantly awed by by even the most commonplace things, like rain or a horse. By contrast, Robertson’s Tulsa is defensive and sarcastic, hiding her wounds beneath wit. It’s a winning combination and one that works particularly well in the scene where they finally acknowledge their feelings for each other. It’s sharp and surprising while also being funny and romantic. So, of course, it’s followed by a scene of exposition between the adults that stops all that momentum dead.
The structure is frequently a problem. Whether it’s the way the film prioritizes the adults or the way every scene between Tulsa and Gardner feels truncated so there’s enough room for all the exposition and plot twists. It’s frustrating, but even more so is that the structural weaknesses easily could have been avoided. While a shift in emphasis might have done the trick, the best option would have been to change perspective completely. This should be Tulsa’s story. The movie should be about a lonely girl who meets a boy online who tells her fantastic stories she eventually learns are true. There are moments within the film that hint at how that movie would look. Like the scene where Tulsa comments on the beauty of a landscape and realizes Gardner is too busy marveling at a caterpillar to notice. Imagine how fun that version of The Space Between Us would have been. What a waste.
Rating: 4/10
