Ad Astra

(M) ★★

Director: James Gray.

Cast: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler, Donald Sutherland.

"Wait... am I being overtaken by a Volkswagen?"

Unnecessary narration is a real bugbear of mine. Nine times out of 10 in modern film, it's redundant, telling us things we already know or could easily figure out. Rare recent exceptions include It: Chapter Two and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, where narration was used to good effect to fill in gaps with short, sharp exposition. It's also great in things like Deadpool, where it's a meta-tool to poke fun at what's going on and get laughs (see also the meme-worthy narration of Arrested Development).

But in most modern movies, it adds nothing, merely telling us what we're already seeing and treating the audience like idiots too stupid to decipher a wistful look or a pregnant pause. They took it out of Blade Runner for good reason, and the same should apply in Ad Astra, a profound yet ponderous existential journey into the far reaches of both outer space and an astronaut's "soul".

The narration is not the only thing that grates about Ad Astra, but it is emblematic of the troubles at the heart of this Heart Of Darkness-like journey. While it's an admirable attempt at an all-too-rare beast - the big-budget sci-fi art film - the film is about as subtle as its redundant narration.

Ad Astra (which is Latin for "to the stars") follows astronaut Roy McBride on a secret mission to the moon, Mars and beyond as he seeks to contact his astronaut father (Jones), who was long thought dead following a one-way mission to the outer edges of the galaxy.

There is so much to praise about this movie. Pitt's performances for one, as well as the sound design, Max Richter's score, the way the film portrays space travel, Hoyte van Hoytema's cinematography, and some of the set pieces.

But all this excellence is dragged down by some painfully obvious pop-psychology, dully and unnecessarily narrated by Pitt. Without giving too much away, his character's journey is both an inner and outer one, and what he finds by the film's end is underwhelming, and as subtle as a sledgehammer. Ad Astra's plot-as-metaphor is tiring and silly, and ultimately unrewarding.

The film is also front-loaded with its best set pieces. The two finest sequences - a high altitude plummet from a space elevator and a high-speed shoot-out on the moon - come in the first half and nothing in the latter half can match their energy or excitement. The pace slows down dramatically, partly because the plot necessitates a long solo space journey which plays out as a monotonous bout of space madness. And then it just begins to wear on you, despite the beauty of it all.

And it is beautiful. The obvious comparison with that other recent big-budget sci-fi think piece Interstellar (which has a far worse ending than Ad Astra, to be fair) is difficult to avoid when you consider both films share a cinematographer. Hoytema's visuals are again amazing. And they're aided by an immersive and impressive sound design that also compliments Richter's score, which in turn compliments the whole production.

As for Pitt, he does a stellar job (pardon the pun), with a turn that fits into his already crowded list of great roles. It is a mostly quiet and internal performance, which makes the dull-and-dumb narration all the more frustrating. It's as if the filmmakers are saying "Pitt's performance is too subtle and people are too stupid, so we better get him to say what his character is thinking". It does Pitt a disservice, undermining a top 10 turn from him, and also undoing so much of the film's good work.

Ad Astra reaches for the stars in its storytelling, but isn't brave enough to really fly.