Film Review: Spaceman (2024)
Believe it or not, I always find myself rooting for Adam Sandler. Yes, his films are often buffoonish scatalogical messes, but when heโs good, heโs very good (see Punch-Drunk Love and Uncut Gems for examples of top-notch Sandler). But, against my better judgment, Iโm a Sandler guy, and Iโve come to accept that. Swedish director Johan Renckโs Spaceman comes closer to peak Sandler than I would have expected, but falls short in areas that, quite honestly, donโt have much to do with the big lugโs performance at all.
Based on Czech-born author Jaroslav Kalfaลโs 2017 novel Spaceman of Bohemia, Renckโs film feels far more American than it should, especially considering its roots in Czech culture. Sandler (who plays Jakub, a Czech astronaut on a solo mission to investigate an anomaly on the far side of Jupiter) and the rest of the cast (which includes Carey Mulligan, Lena Olin, and Isabella Rossellini) do as well as can be expected with their accents, but Spacemanโs troubles go beyond mere enunciations.
Whatโs disappointing is that Colby Dayโs screenplay leaves plenty of room for Kubrickian or Tarkovskian experimentation and philosophizing but fails to commit to anything remotely resembling challenging cinema. Instead, Spaceman feels like a movie attempting to ape 2001 or Solaris, but lacks either the chops or the passion (or both) to successfully pull it off. Iโm not mad at it, but I am disappointed in its inability to shine where it clearly could have.
What I do like is Paul Dano as Hanuลก, a giant alien spider that befriends Jakub just as his loneliness and regret start to get the best of him. By probing Jakubโs memories, Hanuลก gains not just a keen insight into the troubled manโs life and personal failings but also into the failings of humanity as a whole. In this way, Hanuลก acts as a strangely appealing combination of Star Trek: The Next Generationโs Q (iconically played by John de Lancie) and the wise and philosophical talking gorilla from Daniel Quinnโs 1992 novel Ishmael. As strange as this comparison may seem, I nevertheless found myself unable to shake its weird implications, especially when weighed against Jakubโs inclination to dwell on past mistakes instead of finding solutions to present problemsโsomething many of us who suffer from depression and anxiety can easily relate to.
But, even if the dynamic between Jakub and Hanuลก (and thus between Sandler and Dano) has potential, it isnโt realized in a satisfactory way. And while the filmโs climax isnโt a complete failure (itโs surprisingly emotional, considering the circumstances), it isnโt a particularly memorable one either, regardless of Sandler and Dano’s interesting, if somewhat underdeveloped, chemistry.
