Spaceman: Earnest-But-Earthbound Sandler Film Strains to Explore Space Metaphysically
By Karen Gordon
Rating: C-plus
There is a wonderful purpose to Adam Sandler’s new movie Spaceman, a psychological and mystical story about a cosmonaut amid a deep-space mission, forced to face the suppressed emotional pain that is tanking his life.
That it falters under the weight of its earnest ambitions doesn’t mean that we don’t get its heartfelt healing message. But that earnestness, and a distracting plot device never quite takes off.
Adam Sandler plays a cosmonaut named Jakub, who is half-way through a year-long solo space mission with a potentially exciting pay off. He is exploring the “Chopra system” which, it’s believed, could lead to a discovery of something about the universe that could provide new context for existence.
Jakub (Adam Sandler) and his space-spider friend
The movie has barely begun and we’re already both deep into space, and into deep metaphorical territory.
Appearing via a link, speaking to a group of students courtesy of the Euro-Space commission, he takes a question: A young student notes that he’s been called the loneliest man on Earth, and asks if that is true. Jakub, assures everyone that he is not. HIs exciting mission, and the potential of what he might discover at the end of it, is keeping him busy.
But we already know he’s lying. His space capsule looks like a junk heap. Some of the key electronics need repair. The toilet needs to be fixed. He can’t sleep. He looks awful. And he’s functioning, but clearly depressed.
His main contact on earth, Peter (Kunal Nayyar) , and the rest of his mission control team led by Commissioner Tuma (Isabella Rossellini) are aware and worried about his mental health.
They are protecting him from news they feel would destroy him: his wife Lenka (Carey Mulligan), who is pregnant with their first child, has left the marriage. She’s recorded an emotional message to him that they refuse to send. Instead they go to her to try to persuade her to hang in. Even though he’s far away, Jakub senses that something is off.
Then things get strange: Jakub discovers an intruder on the ship. It’s an alien that looks like a human-sized spider, who says he’s become fascinated by Jakub, and wants to help him.
After Jakub recovers from the shock, he and the alien, who he names Hanus (voiced by Paul Dano), start to talk about deep issues. Hanus, who continues to calls Jakub ‘Skinny Human’ for some reason, can see into Jakub’s life.
Acting like an interstellar therapist/shaman, he begins to gently challenge him to go deeper into his life and look for answers. And in scenes that flash back in time, he takes us to visit Lenka on Earth and see some of her memories. The film creates a picture of the not-so-perfect emotional life that has brought Jakub to this moment of crisis.
Space, with its inky blackness, its remoteness and the inhospitality that forces humans to survive in confined quarters, is an excellent metaphor for the unconscious mind. There, everything we have experienced, the memories, difficult emotions, traumas and even some of our joys are kept, walled off from the conscious mind by our ego.
Anyone who has done deep-talk therapy understands how the terrors of the unknown in space, mirror what it feels to face the unconscious. When it comes to facing buried emotions, we feel alone and far away from help, even if we’re in a room with a therapist (or, as in Jakub's case, an alien spider).
With an omni-present, New Age style soundtrack, and visual effects reminiscent of sci-fi like Solaris, Ad Astra, and Gravity, Spaceman underlines that even though this is tough territory, you can steer towards healing.
It’s a movie that deals with men’s psychology. In the case of Spaceman, it’s about a man who has spent a life building up walls to protect himself from deep emotional wounds and traumas. Letting those down and processing emotional pain are beautiful and necessary. Even though things have changed somewhat, our society still sends messages to men that looking inward, being vulnerable, opening to their emotions are signs of weakness. Better to stiffen the old jaw and carry on as if all were fine in the universe.
Other than the fact that Jakub is a cosmonaut, he’s not a particularly unusual man. And the emotional wounds that he has been carrying are unique to his life, but otherwise aren’t particularly unusual either. And that’s one of the most effective things about Spaceman. Jakub in space, talking to a spider is really an everyman.
Sandler, in his dramatic roles, seems to be drawn to playing men who are in the grips of their emotions. There’s always something a little vulnerable about his characters. His performance here is nicely calibrated and not over-the-top. His quiet ability to give in to his character’s grief is what makes Spaceman effective. And he is aided in that by the always wonderful Carey Mulligan whose character is going through her own pain because of the lapses in their relationship.
Unfortunately, other parts of the film don’t work as well, and in spite of its goals, they take away from the experience of the film. The spider looks like a bad child’s toy and speaks in a soft voice and softer cliches, which makes the scenes more trying and less effective as the movie goes on.
By the time the movie gets into mystical territory, with its more profound message, it's drifted so far into space that even though we can make out its heartfelt and beautiful message, the problems with the film have started to block our reception.
Spaceman. Directed by Johan Renck. Stars Adam Sandler, Carey Mulligan, Paul Dano, Kunal Nayyar and Isabella Rossellini. Begins on Netflix March 1.