I NEVER thought I would see Adam Sandler, the star of such garbage as Mr Deeds, Little Nicky, Billy Madison, and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, billed in the same film as Carey Mulligan, never mind Isabella Rossellini.
But then there’s so much about Sandler’s latest film, Spaceman, that struck me as unusual and not like any of the bilge we have come to know the American comedian for.
Sure, if you can manage to see beyond Jack and Jill, he has proved his acting chops in recent years in quality movies such as Uncut Gems, Hustle, and The Meyerowitz Stories.
Spaceman, however, which is new to Netflix, sees Sandler dig deeper than he has before in the role of Jakub Procházka, a Czechoslovakian astronaut who has been alone in space for over six months.
It is evident throughout that The Wedding Singer star’s talents in dramatic roles are clearly underrated. Sandler’s big doe-eyed performance in Johan Renck’s film of a Major Tom-esque character straight out of David Bowie’s Space Oddity proves a soulful one.
While on his lonely solo mission to investigate a mysterious celestial dust cloud off Jupiter, Jakub becomes increasingly concerned with the state of his life back on Planet Earth. “Floating in a most peculiar way”, the vast emptiness of the galaxy amplifies the melancholic musings of this depressed cosmonaut, tipped over the edge most days by his noisy, dysfunctional latrine.
With the help of an ancient alien creature — a six-eyed, ten-legged, hairy arachnid voiced by Paul Dano — he soon realises that his loneliness and despair are caused by his ineptitude to save his decaying marriage to estranged wife Lenka (Mulligan).
Coming off like a cross between Duncan Jones’ science fiction classic Moon and Donnie Darko, Spaceman is a philosophical and sombre intergalactic odyssey that examines love, ambition, and self-discovery to a haunting score by Max Richter.
A film that will leave you emotionally drained, it won’t be for everyone, with its claustrophobic sense of hopelessness and a real Cold War distaste for joy.
Buckle up, it’s going to get bumpy!
(3/5)
