“Ad Astra” is latin for “To the Stars,” which is exactly where this movie tries to go. As a lifetime space enthusiast, I am thrilled to see a movie that tries, and largely succeeds, depicting space travel as a viable industry. It posits that humanity has established not just settlements but industry on the Moon and Mars and is venturing toward the outer planets of our Solar System for knowledge and resources. That is a future I believe in.

James Gray’s film needs a plot, too, however, and this one is kind of weird. Astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) is recruited to go to Mars to send a message to his father, whom almost everyone in the world presumes is a dead hero. But the father (Tommy Lee Jones) may still be alive, and he may be causing a massively destructive power surge, and must be stopped. The government is willing to let Roy try to talk to his father from Mars, but to go no further. Roy, of course, has other ideas.

This very insular film presents the story almost exclusively from Roy’s limited perspective. That’s fine at the beginning, when we journey with him from Earth to the dark side of the Moon, and then on to Mars. This journey is treacherous in surprising ways, but everything makes good sense. Mars, however, changes everything, and from then on this movie tries to evoke Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey‘s ambiguousness much too hard. It needs more dialogue and less familial angst. By the time it ended I was less interested in its strange story than the unspoken consequences of Roy’s actions, which may well change elements of the Solar System itself.

I really wanted to like this film, and for the first two-thirds, I did. But with the “crazy old guy alone in space having to confront the son whom he left back on Earth” story thread, it was never going to end well. And it doesn’t. Gray’s filmmaking talent is undeniable, but he focuses far too closely on Roy; almost nobody else is important to the story, and as the film itself proves, space travel is a collaborative effort where everyone has important work to do. It is interesting, however, to consider how Roy’s actions would be seen back on Earth, if they are ever made public. Hero or villain? He’s both, just like dear old dad. ☆ ☆ 1/2. 30 September 2019.