Movie Breakdown: The Midnight Sky (Noah)
Pre-Screening Stance:
George Clooney as an actor – totally great. George Clooney as a director – totally hit-or-miss. Here’s hoping this is more Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and less Monuments Men.
Post-Screening Ramble:
Let’s say there’s three films. The first film is an eco-disaster film where a single man – dying of some unknown blood disease – living alone in the midst of an Earth-ending environmental disaster is the only person who can save a group of astronauts who might be the world’s very last hope at survival. The man, and a plucky young girl, must make their way across Antarctica to warn the incoming space folk. The second movie is the story of a distant planet – somewhere near Jupiter – where a crew of astronauts have found the next place our species can go. To do so they must make their way back through meteors and ice balls. There’s romance and adventure and hope. The final story finds a young astronomer who’s workaholic nature has fractured his family and left him alone in life. Those would be three good movies, right? If made by a talented director, all three of those films would probably be watchable. George Clooney’s new film – The Midnight Sky – tries to be all three of these films and suffers for it. I won’t repeat the storylines, but to say the least, George Clooney – and said plucky young girl – are trying to save astronauts. The astronauts are returning from a distant planet and when Clooney’s character was young – well, you get the point. I’ll give it to Clooney, each story is well fleshed out, each character given motivation (even if its scant) enough to seem real and interesting. To say the least: this wasn’t a film that bored me. It just sort of overwhelmed me. Or it provided windows into interesting stories and then pulled me away from them before I could get fully invested. Or, maybe, it let me sit too long with these characters and then pulled them from the screen for too long. Clooney is solid as the astronomer who’s fighting for his life in so many ways just because he can’t let go. Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo, Kyle Chandler, Demian Bechir and Tiffany Boone are all solid as astronauts and friends fighting to get home. In the end though, the narrative is pulled from here to there to here to there so many times that when Clooney finally gets around to tying all the pieces together, it couldn’t have ever added up to enough.
One Last Thought:
I’m going to say it: Netflix – get yourself some editors. These movies need to be placed underneath the cutting eye of a professional. Seriously.
