The Space Between Us Review

PG13: Brief Sensuality and Language

STX Entertainment, H. Brothers, Los Angeles Media Fund, Southpaw Entertainment

2 Hrs and 1 Minute

Cast: Asa Butterfield, Britt Robertson, Carla Gugino, Gary Oldman, B.D. Wong, Janet Montgomery

REVIEW:The Space Between Us was a film that was pushed back then scheduled again, then pushed back then scheduled again. And then got so scared of releasing itself right next to Rogue One (and the box office hit Collateral Beauty) that it ran away to a February 2017 release date. When it comes to releasing a film there are several lessons that need to be learned. First lesson: DON’T RELEASE YOUR SHIT THE SAME TIME AS STAR WARS! and it learned that lesson.  And now after long wait comes The Space Between Us

from the director of:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the screenwriter of:

Set in 2018, an astronaut stationed on Mars discovers she is pregnant, dying in childbirth. Her son, Gardner Elliot, lives on the planet his whole life, but eventually forms a friendship online with a girl from Earth named Tulsa. 16 Years later (2034), he is given a chance to go to the Earth and meets her, but it is soon discovered that his organs cannot survive Earth's atmosphere. Gardner and Tulsa attempt to see more of the Earth before it's too late.

THE GOOD: The last film we saw Butterfield in prior to this was Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children where he was…..stiff. Okay, he was bad. There’s no way walking around it. In this, he’s much better. He’s not great, but his acting skill marginally improved. When he’s on Mars, his relationship with Carla Gugino is emotional and understandable where he’s a sulky teenager who you can resonate with because HE’S ON MARS! When he enters Earth, Gardner’s supposedly large IQ does leave the planet, but Butterfield still has a lot of charm to him. The best thing I like about his performance is the movie is when he is discovering the many things about Earth where his actions start to mix in between the lines of Curious George and Mr. Bean.

At times the film does have a spark of inspiration. The movie in the first act feels to be like a reverse Wall-E. You have this only kid, Gardner, on Mars trailing to Earth to find romance. Like Wall-E, they both lack the skill to socialize. Gardner also abides by old films from the 20th century to teach him about the different ways to socialize. 

THE BAD: I think I found my new Kryptonite of cinema and his name is Allan Loeb. Whenever I see a film that has him in the screenwriting credit, I automatically dread the film that I’m watching. I tried to have some good will for the film, I truly did, but goddamn it can we not give this guy a typewriter because he writes nothing but bad movies with so much plot holes.It doesn’t get to a Collateral Beauty level of stupid. It goes much worse than that. A lot of dialogue is too sentimental and hokey, but it doesn’t just stop there for the story doesn’t really add up.

The film is supposed to be centered on the romance between Tulsa and Gardner, but Loeb fails to explain where their friendship even began. They all There’s no mention once of their past prior to Gardner’s introduction as a 16-year-old. When we see him as a 16-year-old, he’s already friends with Tulsa and you just have to buy it. They don’t interact face to face until nearly an hour into the movie and this is a two-hour movie. 

Their personalities are so off that when they’re supposed to be romantic it’s unbelievable at times. The majority of the last hour is a series of Tulsa and Gardner committing crimes by stealing cars to get from one place to another. You never see the reactions of the people they’re stealing the cars from. Hey, when you’re in love every crime is justified.

The direction is so telegraphed that it rarely feels like a theatrical production. With the exception of the scenes on Mars, the movie is incredibly cheap. It feels like you’re watching a film that belongs on Freeform other than being a production made for theaters. Even when a scene is filmed at a location, it’s laughably terrible. In the scene where Gardner is going through a heart attack in Las Vegas, and nobody around decides to go help him out. Instead what do we see? We see the bystanders just keep walking like "Whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas kid." There was even one guy (who you know wasn’t an extra) who turned to see Gardner on the floor and laughed while walking offscreen. It’s just that cheap.

The cast isn’t that bad in the film. Nobody seems to be sleepwalking in this movie. Well all for except Gary Oldman. It’s sad to see Gary Oldman show up in films not to give a crap. He starts William Shatner-ing his performance in this. You know when William Shatner is in a role he doesn’t care about, he begins to deliver his William Shatner voice without any attempt to put anything else into his performance? Well, that’s exactly what Gary Oldman does in this. If Gary Oldman doesn't care either does the orchestra. The score plays so much louder than his dialogue at times that it's damn near jarring. You can't hear his dialogue several times that you end up going

Every bad element about this film whether being the story, the direction. or Gary Oldman’s performance doesn’t compare to Allan Loeb’s screenplay. Right when I thought this film was a slight improvement from Collateral Beauty the film takes another twist. Right when I said to myself “Well this is a bit better than Collateral Beau-OH wait he wrote ATWIST! Fuck it. This is stupid.” As M. Night Shyamalan has been deteriorating from being the silly twist-loving Shyamalan that we rolled our eyes at in the 2000s with his recent films by putting effort into his screenplays, Allan Loeb has become the reincarnation of Shyamalan that we hated in the late 00s. It’s annoying because it’s a twist that you can see coming from miles away and will leave you with a cringe and a sour taste in your mouth. You will go immediately from an unenthusiastic “oh” to an immediate, “ewwwww.” It’s not only incredibly stupid, it’s laughably stupid. It was just so angering when I both groaned and rolled my eyes that it left me pissed for the remaining fifteen minutes of the film.

LAST STATEMENT: Despite Butterfield’s charming performance, The Space Between Us is a terribly written and poorly directed film with so many plot holes it makes other films about Martians such as John Carter look like a masterpiece.

Rating: 1.5/5 | 38%

Super Scene: Gardner Tests Tulsa's Nerves

Pros	Cons
Asa Butterfield's Performance	Gary Oldman Pulling A William Shatner
First Act	Poor Directing
Brief Romantic Scenes Between Gardner and Tulsa	Cheap Effects
Carla Gugino	Shitty Screenplay With Plot Holes Galore (WITH A BONUS TWIST)
	Lack of Genuine Emotion and Character
	Televised Cinematography