Rented the “inspired by a true story” astronaut flick Lucy in the Sky on iTunes the other day. This film tells the roughly true story of the female astronaut who put on a space diaper to drive cross country to confront her lover. You may remember this headline-grabbing story from a decade or so back… and if you do, it’s because of the lurid details of the diaper and a love triangle. Weirdly, this movie keeps the love triangle but dumps (ahem) the diaper… which is something the press knocked the movie for while simultaneously giggling over the detail. It’s sad and depressing that one of the few modern real-life astronaut stories is most known for the giggling in the hallway details. But that’s where we are and that’s what this movie is.
So the film star Natalie Portman as an astronaut who has a sublime moment on an EVA in orbit and returns to the earth changed. She tells everyone she’s fine and ready to go back up but is secretly having an existential crisis. How is it that she floated above the world with the whole universe above her and now she’s back picking her kid up from school, paying taxes, and going bowling? But she perseveres… and then starts having an affair with a fellow astronaut (John Hamm) who can understand her feelings, unlike her NASA PR husband (who can’t even open a jar of pickles without her help). Things spiral out of control when NASA grounds her and she starts having delusions and paranoia.
OK… I like the first half of the movie. The idea of an astronaut dealing with having to live the rest of her life on Earth and not in the stars is good. I like an existential crisis. But i’m less fond of the love triangle, Lucy going mad, putting on a disguise, and stalking her ex-boyfriend story. On the other hand, that’s apparently what happened… it’s a true story after all. But, again, it’s just kind of sad that this lurid pulp is what we get for real-world astronauts in film. And apparently not exactly an accurate version of the story, if the write-ups on the movie are true.
But ignoring my personal distaste, I will repeat the first half of the movie is pretty good… but the more she loses her mind, the less actually interesting the movie gets. I got deeply bored with the overlong run-time fixated on a woman losing her shit over a man and NASA grounding her (though they do add some social commentary of her managers thinking she’s too emotional). It was kind of boring and repetitive… and then it gets pulpy and silly before taking far too long to just end.
This is a pretty mediocre movie with some bright spots. Holding up the majesty of being in orbit is admirable… and a story that deals with having to come back down to reality is interesting. But the way the movie turns that into an admittedly true story of emotional breakdown is depressing… and oddly boring. Unfortunate, but true.
Score: 66