Clara is a very frustrating movie for me… someone who doesn’t need hard sci-fi but appreciates it when its made. And for a decent amount of time, this looked exactly like that. A science-based drama – maybe hovering into the sci-fi realm, buzzing around a little romance – that was focused on the big ideas of life, the universe, and everything. But it ultimately gets a little too fuzzy-headed and woo-woo, betraying what I thought was a perfectly well-rounded exploration of science and philosophy.

The film is about a closed-off astrophysicist who is seeking an exo-planet candidate for the James Webb Space Telescope when it goes online. In his obsessive quest, he hires a research assistant named Clara who has no science background but is smart, hard working, and only a little homeless. They form a friendship and then a bond that hovers around love and they spend their time working and debating science vs. belief.

I won’t go into more detail than that to avoid spoilers. But I did appreciate the discussion of belief systems and it felt like a more grounded, less metaphysical version of the conversations about love in Interstellar.

But then the movie takes a turn and Clara becomes more a symbol or a character type than a person. And the closer we get to our science fiction ending, the more the movie basically betrays itself and gets very starry-eyed and fuzzy-brained. My heart dropped at the final reveal of the film… it could have gone one of many directions and ultimately chose one that felt like a betrayal. Granted, not outside the the text of the movie.

But that’s just me… some people will no doubt find the end message lovely and emotional. And I’m not against that… I loved Contact’s “they should have sent a poet” moment so I’m not an emotionless automaton. It’s just, in the case this movie established, I didn’t think it worked.

Score: 79