Stowaway is a movie seemingly tailor made for these unsafe times. Just four people. Just one location. But there’s plenty of potential there to be had with the right script and direction.
I like spaceship movies, you can do surprisingly a lot with very few ingredients. You can do it with two actors à la Gravity or even one à la excellent Moon. And here with four actors there was plenty of drama to be had. Well, originally there were three, three trained and specialized astronauts on a two year mission to Mars. Until they discovered…you guessed it…a stowaway. So the balance is off and that alone would have been fine, but they’ve also discovered a FUBARed carbon dioxide scrubber, meaning they will be unable to complete the mission/remain alive for the duration of their trip with things being as they are. Time to kill the stowaway? Well, no, not for the morally developed and virtuous crew, lead in the moral outrage by Anna Kendrick’s Zoe. Actually Daniel Dae Kim’s imaginatively named David Kim character wouldn’t mind, he’s mostly interested in his algae. And Toni Colette’s slightly more imaginatively named commander Barnett probably would be ok with it too, she’s more about the bottom line. But Zoe won’t have it. And algae starts dying and the O2 need becomes critical. They have extra but getting to it is challenging. And Kim’s isn’t exactly a heroic type. But Zoe is. So watch her go all heroic. Set dramatically against the lovely but deadly solar flares. So this was meant to be a heavy hitting drama with a cast of talented actors making tough decisions and somehow it didn’t quite get there. Toni Colette was excellent as always, all serious and make up free, as a woman is charge, Kim was very good too, cutting up the scenery with his cheekbones. The stowaway himself was very compelling too as a man who wakes up to a nightmare that only seems to be getting more and more terrible. But Kendrick didn’t really work for me here. Mind you, nothing against Kendrick, she has great comedic timing, she sings well, she has a certain quirky appeal. But here applying against the type seems to prove too much of a stretch. And sure, the stowaway conveniently provided a heartrending sob story to motivate her ascent to superZoe status, but it all comes through sort of slightly off. Which it to say it doesn’t have the emotional gutpunch of George Clooney drifting into space or the rousing blockbuster moment of The Martian being rescued. It’s nice she tried to stretch her acting muscles, she even co executively produced it, but there’s something about Kendrick’s birdlike twiggy presence that seems all wrong for this movie and this scenario. Also, learn to tie knots, people. Seriously. So much of these dramatics would have been avoided with properly secured knots. So there you go, a space adventure only fans of slow paced isolation driven dramatics would put on their must watch list. For all others…strictly optional. Decent and pretty to look at, but underwhelming. And I’m still questioning some of the science and logistics. I mean…first off, a stowaway on a Mars mission? That already strains credulity plenty.
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