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COVID-19 Special: 'The Midnight Sky' (12)



Director: George Clooney

Cast: George Clooney, Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo, Kyle Chandler

Where can I watch?: The Midnight Sky is streaming on Netflix

Rating: 3.5/5

Review: It's recognised in Hollywood that, if you, as a leading man, grow a fantastically large beard, ditch the wrinkle cream and find yourself dying of a generic terminal illness, you're playing for the Oscar. In The Midnight Sky, George Clooney ditches the Nespresso, swaps the clean shave for a large grey facial carpet and proceeds to cough and vomit whenever there's a lull in the conversation. Directing himself, Clooney is clearly gunning for an award of some kind, but, for all the strong points, The Midnight Sky is a bit all over the place to secure a place in the sci-fi/space exploration hall of fame. The story is divided in three distinct pieces: a flashback story; a post-apocalyptic wilderness characterised by Augustine (Clooney) and Iris (newcomer Caoilinn Springall); and a spaceship sequence, where a team of astronauts are returning to Earth after a failed mission to make one of Jupiter's moons habitable. It's this final section that leaves the film floundering: tonally uneven (one minute we're singing along to Neil Diamond, and the next we're grappling with familial responsibility) and poorly written (it really does feel as though someone just mashed the keys for these scenes), it detracts from the simple, yet effective, nature of the scenes in which Clooney and his young companion race across a frozen wasteland in an attempt to make contact with humanity in outer space. Despite the undoubted beauty and technical wizardry that went into the space sequences, they feel ultimately empty and a little misjudged. Alexandre Desplat's score, although sweeping and immersive, seems out of place here too - too light and frivolous somehow to suit the deep, dark and soul-searching themes that those in the spacecraft should be grappling with. It all felt a bit odd. It's a shame - it almost feels as though the film would have been stronger for removing the space sequences and focusing solely on the desperation and isolation of the destroyed Planet Earth. After all, it's not like George's beard couldn't have done the heavy lifting...

A COVID-19 Must-Watch?: A low-key sci-fi film that's part post-apocalyptic dystopia, part staring into the void and part survival adventure, The Midnight Sky makes for a refreshingly non-optimistic view of the future - a heart-warming, fuzzy on the inside movie this is not! Painfully uneven in places, the conclusion will undoubtedly leave some viewers wholly unfulfilled, while the 'twist' becomes all too obvious from about half way through. Still, there are some pleasures to be had, and it's certainly an antidote to the saccharine films that usually flood our screens over Christmas.  

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