Review of The Midnight Sky (2020) by Dan_B — 26 Dec 2020

A scientific base in the Arctic is being evacuated due to a global catastrophe in the mid-21st century. Only the astronomer Augustine Lofthouse (George Clooney) remains, who later discovers a girl who had not been evacuated. In parallel, a manned ship from a planet near Jupiter is returning to Earth, ignorant of the catastrophe that is devastating it.

Clooney's new film as a director is a real challenge to the new average taste of the public, which is why it is coming under heavy attack from it. He incurs several "sins" that the current average viewer does not forgive: his pace in general is slow (the now much reviled slowness), there are aspects of the plot that he deliberately does not explain (and that in this way become more ominous), his pessimism is evident, he avoids underlines and its end is misunderstood by many. Its conservative and more conventional aspects, which have to do with a certain occasional sentimentality and the central place that it gives to family ties are curiously overlooked.

On the other hand, given that Midnight Sky in its own way pays tribute to the science fiction cinema "with a message" from before but ultimately privileges, with certain licenses, science fiction (let's not forget that Clooney starred in the Solaris remake) also receives hits criticism, since it does not reach or propose the degree of psychological, metaphysical or existential depth of its models or of Nolan's delusions in vogue abuse, for example.

Augustine is the prototype of a brilliant scientist who has been left alone by neglecting his personal ties, in particular, family members, but who will be loyal to his "mission" until the end and luckily saves us transcendent monologues with voice-overs about the same.

The film combines a survival on Earth drama with a "spaceship in trouble" drama, both of which are very well staged and lavish images of great beauty. We observe elegance and deployment in the design and resolution of technological devices (laboratories, consoles, spaceship), which nevertheless avoid overwhelming. The spikes in tension and action on the ship and on Earth are very well resolved and filmed. There is at least one sequence on the ship that will surely remain in science fiction anthologies.

Clooney carries on with sobriety and solvency an aged and sick character, well accompanied by the rest of the cast.

In short, an elegant and beautiful film, with great production design but that does not intend to overwhelm, which in its own way defies the current average taste of the public, which seeks to balance the science fiction of adventures and entertainment with the introspective, psychological-existential and with a message and that, in general, is successful in the challenge.