I thought I was watching paint dry as I watched this film play out and in many ways I was. The slow pace, bland(ish) story and somewhat fantastical elements left me wondering where the film was taking me and why they had to present such mundane elements of life to get there. But I nevertheless persevered, motivated only by the hope that some radical conclusion could bring this story together and redeem the past 90 minutes I had been watching it for.
These 90 mins mostly comprised of reflections of failed career's, past regrets and a budding teenage romance all interspersed across the backdrop of a dysfunctional family's lives uprooted by the collision of a rocket in their backyard. Of course these tropes have been played out many times before and the film struggles to find originality in these core themes, though is nonetheless entertaining as it presents them through the lense of pop-science and the spacecraft that fueled our imaginations as children; a thematic element that strikes a deep chord of nostalgia throughout the film.
But make no mistake, this is a fantastic movie, because not only did the movie tie these seemingly separate stories together brilliantly, the movie concludes with one of the most poignant endings i've experienced in film for a very long time.
As each brush stroke played out across the screen it was not until the final stroke and the drying of the paint that it was clear where this movie was heading, and had been heading all along. A perfect reflection of the underlying tragedies experienced by the characters and the beauty of love persevering through it all.
Though my mind did correctly glance across possibilities of the conclusion before it ended and perhaps some allusions to the climax were a little on the nose, I nonetheless found tears streaming uncontrollably down my cheeks as the movie ended. While the credits rolled I left the film in a state of deep reflection, pondering the true nature of each character and the film's diverse imagery, this state of reflection I can only attest to being the quality of a great film.
These 90 mins mostly comprised of reflections of failed career's, past regrets and a budding teenage romance all interspersed across the backdrop of a dysfunctional family's lives uprooted by the collision of a rocket in their backyard. Of course these tropes have been played out many times before and the film struggles to find originality in these core themes, though is nonetheless entertaining as it presents them through the lense of pop-science and the spacecraft that fueled our imaginations as children; a thematic element that strikes a deep chord of nostalgia throughout the film.
But make no mistake, this is a fantastic movie, because not only did the movie tie these seemingly separate stories together brilliantly, the movie concludes with one of the most poignant endings i've experienced in film for a very long time.
As each brush stroke played out across the screen it was not until the final stroke and the drying of the paint that it was clear where this movie was heading, and had been heading all along. A perfect reflection of the underlying tragedies experienced by the characters and the beauty of love persevering through it all.
Though my mind did correctly glance across possibilities of the conclusion before it ended and perhaps some allusions to the climax were a little on the nose, I nonetheless found tears streaming uncontrollably down my cheeks as the movie ended. While the credits rolled I left the film in a state of deep reflection, pondering the true nature of each character and the film's diverse imagery, this state of reflection I can only attest to being the quality of a great film.