Landon Santini
lbs001@marietta.edu
Set in the near future, this is the story of a boy born in rather unusual circumstances. An astronaut stationed on the planet Mars discovers she is pregnant and dies in childbirth. Her son, Gardner Elliot, lives on the planet for pretty much his whole life, but eventually comes to form a friendship online with a girl from Earth named Tulsa. When he turns 16, Once he arrives, he experiences the wonders of the planet through fresh eyes. However, it is soon discovered that his organs cannot survive Earth’s gravity. So Tulsa makes it her personal mission to help Gardner see more of the Earth before it’s too late, leading to the couple to embark on an adventure to discover how he came to be.
This wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination a film that wasn’t enjoyable. Something that most people might be a little jarred by is this film’s sometimes-abrupt tonal shift. This film can go from the occasional giggle to at least one face-palm to just flat out emotional by the end. This is a film that every couple of minutes features another added on plot element that makes little sense, some that undo other plot elements that happened beforehand. It’s also worth nothing that this film was written by Allan Loeb who was also the writer of the emotionally manipulative holiday film released during last Christmas called Collateral Beauty. That script wasn’t really good, but I have to admit that Loeb goes for big concepts when writing.
As far as the performers in this film are concerned, the actors are clearly bringing their all to these performances, but the script doesn’t really seem to get a complete gage on their characters. For example, we’re told several times that Gardner Elliot played by Asa Butterfield was raised by scientists and therefore possess a genius intellect as a result. Although, the script goes on to make him ridiculously naïve at the most plot convenient moments. This is a guy who both grew up on Mars and who grew up watching movies. So when he sees a horse later on he should at least know what it is. I can buy him being a little startled by encountering a real live horse for the first time, but I don’t buy that he wouldn’t know what it was.
As far as Britt Robertson’s portrayal as the love interest Tulsa No-Last-Name is supposed to be this tough cookie that’s been in lots of foster homes and doesn’t trust anybody who wants to break out when she turns 18. I honestly don’t buy Britt Robertson as this type of tough-jock character. This is mostly because I saw her just last week in A Dog’s Purpose where she portrayed the teenage girlfriend of one of the owners of the titular perpetual reincarnating dog. Robertson’s portrayal as Tulsa is annoyingly feisty and perky. By the way, she’s also 26 years old at the time of this article. She’s clearly much too old to by playing high school a student. Don’t get me wrong, Robertson is adorable in her own way, and she pulls off Tulsa okay in this film, but she deserves better roles.
This film can be irritatingly stupid to some, but I would argue that it’s also emotionally enjoyable. On top of it all, during the inevitable road trip portion of the story; which is itself now a cliché story that Hollywood’s been ripping off left and right since ET, two characters have to go on the run from the authorities for one reason or another. This scene gives us a few examples of this film’s totally awkward tonal shifts. The production crew shoots these sequences almost as if the two are in a big car commercial. They are always in the most photogenic area of the Midwest or the Southwest with there always being some amazingly beautiful landscape behind them or tall fields of grass or even a hot-air balloon festival. I also don’t particularly feel that the musical score was handled quite right. The score was either pumping up the strings like crazy to make you feel things or shelling out a dozen different pop songs for pretty much the exact same purpose of artificially garnering an emotional reaction from the audience.
Another problem is that there are quite a few vaguely interesting ethical questions that film raises but are never really given the proper attention or resolution needed. For example, Gardner’s mother’s initial pregnancy was voted by NASA to be kept a secret from the public at large leading the people behind the Mars Colonization Project known as West Texas to go through these (brief) compelling arguments about what the right thing to do is. Do we acknowledge that this baby was born? Will it jeopardize the mission if we tell the world? There are a few interesting discussions about the concepts of science and truth as well as exploration and ambition. In fact, that project that started this whole set of events in the first place was initial brought about because of climate change caused by Global Warming, thereby necessitating the colonization of other planets. But then this plot element is dropped almost immediately after it’s brought up.
This is another plot element that you might miss if you blink or doze off for even a few seconds. The film is supposed to take place in the future, approximately the year 2034 given Gardner’s age. But you wouldn’t know that from looking at the film’s surroundings. Apparently phones, tablets, cars and clothing will be completely the same as they are now in the next sixteen years. There’s this scene where Gardner and Tulsa go to a 1950s-style diner with a jukebox and everything to get some food and find out information about Gardner’s background. But I don’t think the restaurant was made to be retro on purpose. I just think it’s an inconsistency in details. Everything looks totally contemporary except for the laptops, which have a glow. But that’s pretty much it as far as advancements in technology is concerned.
So in conclusion, while this film isn’t exactly good, it’s not exactly terrible either. It’s a terribly clichéd story, but it’s one that I would recommend seeing as a look back to the sense of wonder and amazement you had as a child when experiencing things for the first time. There are actual glimmers of vague emotional truth sprinkled throughout this film. This is a film that I personally enjoyed for what I thought it meant more than what it probably did mean. But be aware that the runtime is almost exactly two hours long so. It’s not the meatiest film in the world, but it’s one that you’ll definitely have a good time with. As a result, I’m going to give this film a score of 4 out of 5.
