Don Shanahan
At many points in the first half of Space Oddity—the feature film directorial debut of Emmy-winning actress Kyra Sedgwick—the main character Alex McCalister recites the same sequence of bullet points for his upcoming future to anyone—young or old—who will listen. Alex outlines a love for astronomy that has carried him through his self-regulated training routines to become an astronaut set to colonize the planet Mars. His little verbal mission statement always ends unflinchingly with “Mars is where I’ll die.”
All at once, this introductory mindset of dedication and gallows humor is both plucky and fatalistic. Exposing both curiosity and anxiety, Space Oddity, from Samuel Goldwyn Films, inelegantly wrestles with those two prevailing traits. The realistic science fiction of its premise and the sunny gaze of the Rhode Island setting swirl up the whimsy. Lo and behold, we find out that quaintness has a limit when it comes to fulfilling the human condition.
Played with an ever-present wide-eyed gaze by Kyle Allen of The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, Alex McCalister has been recruited by the privately-funded Mission Mars project, making him the talk of this small town. With his rehearsed sound bites and fitness rituals, Alex is heart-set on this trip with every decision, action, and emotion. He sees this as his chance to have a valuable purpose in life and silence the naysayers. To those folks, Alex’s response flexes the history of ingenuity to say “Everything we know was once an insane idea.”
The doubts about Alex begin with his very own family. His PR-minded sister Liz (Madeline Brewer, lightening up from The Handmaid’s Tale and pulsating closer to The Ultimate Playlist of Noise) always seems flabbergasted, while his mother Jane (True Blood’s Carrie Preston) puts on a supportive smile and chants what encouragement she can muster. His father Jeff, played by Kevin Bacon, however, meets his enterprising son with silence. All of them, Alex included, are still reeling years after the car accident death of their older brother and first son.
Levity arrives when Alex’s departure checklist necessitates he get a life insurance policy. The local agency assigns his case to Daisy Taylor, played by the sparkling Alexandra Shipp of Endless and two X-Men films. She becomes an immediate sounding board and the two hit it off with a peachy romance.
Allen and Shipp display winning chemistry throughout their shared scenes in Space Oddity. Their Meet Cute evolves quite quickly into idyllic quality time. While more than plenty sweet, the saccharine level reaches a wise limit when it needs to settle down with maturity. Debuting feature screenwriter Rebecca Banner astutely posits Daisy as the emotionally superior individual and not just an object of desire, giving the core relationship depth beyond dreamy dates. Still, the presence of Daisy adds an anchoring wrinkle for Alex.
Forty-two minutes into Space Oddity, this proverbial question comes up of “How could anyone think of giving all this up?” If Alex goes through with his big plan, he not only has to part with Daisy, but he also stands to leave behind the family gardening and floral business. The dichotomy of Alex seeking to do something futuristic versus the primordial farming cultivated by his father are not lost on the viewer. For the life of him, Jeff cannot grasp his son’s conviction to volunteer for a life-terminating one-way trip and refuse something he sees as vital and rooted. Bacon lifts the drama well without pushing too hard or too deep.
Space Oddity reaches a point where Alex, for all his gumption, is increasingly challenged by more supporting characters about the veracity of Mission Mars and bolting for the cosmos. One catalyst and supportive detractor in this re-examination is the town doctor, played by the immensely over-qualified Alfre Woodard. Evaluating Alex mentally more than physically, the path is set out for Alex to address the true finality of his quest and the underlying grim realities percolating in his life.
This potential swerve waiting to happen in Space Oddity both helps and hurts the overall movie. On one hand, any negative revelations would shatter the adventurous spirit that overflows so much of the draw. On the other hand, there is substantial heart and healing to be found if this character’s feet stay on the ground. Banner and Sedgwick dangle and then decidedly choose a bumpy climactic path, putting us right back to curiosity versus anxiety. Correcting either for a wayward soul or two exceeds this movie’s reach.
