Directed by: James Gray
Starring: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler, Donald Sutherland, Loren Dean, John Ortiz
The trailers for Ad Astra promise a science fiction thriller in which a conflicted astronaut searches for the father he believed was long dead while also trying to halt the destruction of the solar system. Ad Astra is about those things, to be sure, but it is more about the personal journey of Roy McBride (Pitt), a stellar astronaut whose life is his work; eschewing all personal connections. He was married once, but his work took precedent, and now his wife has left him. His father Clifford (Jones) left Earth for something called The Lima Project thirty years ago, and hasn't been heard from in years. But the spacecraft used in the project may now be responsible for deadly power surges which engulf the solar system and kill scores of people on Earth. Roy's mission is to find the spacecraft located somewhere around Neptune and, if needed, destroy the spacecraft and everything associated with it.
Roy's voiceover narration suggests he isn't thrilled with being an astronaut, and that it has cut him off from his humanity. He is correct. Single-minded career advancement has been known to do that to people. Clifford is considered a hero to many, including Roy, but has he earned that label? One of the gripping mysteries of Ad Astra is whether Roy will even get the chance to find out. Ad Astra explores similar themes to James Gray's last film The Lost City of Z, in which an early 20th century explorer forsakes almost everything in his obsessive quest to find a lost South American city.
The Lost City of Z does not end happily. Ad Astra is not a happy film, but it resonates with a powerful payoff for our patience. The farther Roy travels from Earth, the closer he gets to solving the mystery of his lost father and figuring out his personal demons. His heart rate doesn't go above 80, even in life-threatening situations, and he is known for his legendary cool under pressure, but will allowing himself to feel ordinary emotions be scarier than falling to Earth from the upper layers of the atmosphere? The visuals here are outstanding, along the lines of 2001: A Space Odyssey in terms of showing how small and alone we are in the face of the cold, unforgiving universe.
In 2019, Brad Pitt has given the two best performances of his long, distinguished career in Ad Astra and Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood, which I think will earn him an Oscar nomination. In Ad Astra, he makes us care about an emotionally distant man who bemoans the personal toll his job has placed on him. He knows his life is incomplete, and he bullshits his way through psych evaluations in order to stay on the mission. His superiors only want to hear that he will do the job without distractions, meaning ordinary human emotions. His father was much the same way, and is the extreme, but prime example of what happens to someone when he puts his professional duties above his personal ones. When watching the Tommy Lee Jones performance, you can't necessarily listen to what he says, but instead to the pauses between the sentences and the slight inflections to certain words. Very few actors can convey regret and sadness in his eyes like Jones can.
Ad Astra is sure to disappoint at the box office because it is hard to fit into a box. Will audiences have the patience to follow Roy to the ends of the universe so he can heal himself? There are a few action scenes, yes, but they only underline Roy's obsession with staying on the mission. Most would say it isn't worth it, but for Roy, nothing else is worth more. Which is sad.
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