Four stars. Rated PG-13, for profanity and brief nudity
By Derrick Bang
The most impressive aspect of
1995’s Apollo 13 lay in the tension
that director Ron Howard generated, despite our certain awareness of the film’s
outcome.
After all, history had spoken:
Everybody knew that the astronauts got back safely. So, since Howard couldn’t
concoct any suspense from the what,
he concentrated on the how ... as in,
how in the world did they survive?
There’s something enticingly absorbing
about watching engineers work a particularly difficult problem. In the realm of
fiction, this is why caper thrillers and the Mission: Impossible franchise remain so popular: We love to see unworkable
puzzles solved via triumphant bursts of ingenuity.
No surprise, then, that director
Ridley Scott’s handling of The Martian
is 141 minutes of nail-biting anxiety. Andy Weir’s 2011 novel (which has its
own amazing history) is a crackerjack sci-fi thriller to begin with, and Scott
and scripter Drew Goddard have pumped it up with an engaging blend of quiet agitation
and gallows humor.
Best of all, this is smart science-fiction: a rigorously
technical narrative that we rarely get from a Hollywood factory that equates
the genre with the zap-gun antics of Star
Wars and Guardians of the Galaxy
(which, let’s face it, are — at best — equal parts sci-fi and fantasy). In the
literary realm, Weir’s book is regarded as “hard” science of the sort written
by Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven and Kim Stanley Robinson.
Such stories are harder to bring
to the big screen, because they don’t grant actors many opportunities for
showboating or melodramatic interpersonal dynamics. But exceptions do exist —
2009’s Moon comes to mind — and if
Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman can generate unease from plodding
investigative journalism, then surely talented filmmakers can do the same with
a clever sci-fi premise. Right?
Indeed. To give further credit
where due, Scott has packed his film with an impressive cast, assigning strong
actors to even the smallest of roles. Top marks go to star Matt Damon, who
anchors most of the film with a compelling, deeply expressive, one-man
performance on par with what we’ve seen from Tom Hanks (Cast Away) and Robert Redford (All
Is Lost).
The story, then:
The time is an unspecified point
in the near future, after NASA has successfully sent a six-person mission to
Mars. The Ares 3 crew has established a good-sized working habitat within the
Acidalia Planitia plain, and has spent some number of days collecting samples
and conducting experiments.
An intense dust storm threatens
their return spacecraft, forcing a rushed evacuation. During the blinding
confusion, botanist Mark Watney (Damon) is smashed away when the habitat’s
antenna mount snaps off, and he’s immediately lost to sight. Worse yet, his suit’s
telemetry goes offline and he fails to respond to radio communication,
suggesting a fatal oxygen breach.
With great reluctance, Commander
Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain) and the rest of the crew — pilot Rick Martinez
(Michael Peña), cyber expert Beth Johanssen (Kate Mara), chemist Alex Vogel
(Aksel Hennie) and flight surgeon Chris Beck (Sebastian Stan) — abandon the
search and take off, to begin their 10-month journey home.
But when the subsequent Martian
day dawns calm, Mark regains consciousness and discovers that his suit monitors
have been damaged by a portion of antenna mount. He makes it back to the
habitat, notes the absent Ares 3, and deduces what has happened. Worse still —
as if anything could be worse than being left alone on Mars — the destroyed
antenna has left him unable to communicate with Ares or NASA.
Back home, Mark’s apparent death
is mourned by NASA Director Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels), Mars Mission Director
Vincent Kapoor (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Ares 3 Flight Director Mitch Henderson (Sean
Bean) and NASA media relations director Annie Montrose (Kristen Wiig).
Mark, meanwhile, has decided to
“work the problem” (the phrase beloved by engineers around the world). Oxygen
won’t be a dilemma, as the habitat can generate that, but food and water
definitely will be an issue ... particularly since his only likely means of
survival depends on staying alive for four years, at which point the subsequent
Ares 4 mission is scheduled to arrive on Mars.
At Schiaparelli crater, 2,000
miles away. Which, obviously, is another
problem.
But panic and surrender aren’t in
the cards, and so Mark gets to work ... as audience members indulge in the
ultimate game of Armchair Survivor: What would we do?
Curl up and die, more likely than
not, but Mark is made of sterner stuff ... which Damon doesn’t let us forget
for a second. We get the benefit of his thoughts, hopes and fears via the video
log he faithfully records each day, likely to be found (he realizes) only long
after he has died. But although we see evidence of such fears in Damon’s eyes,
he punches through each challenge with a blend of bravado and wry humor.
“I can beat this,” he insists, to
nobody in particular, “because I’m a botanist!”
Back at NASA, low-level Mission
Control observer Mindy Park (Mackenzie Davis) makes a startling late-night
discovery, while viewing satellite images of the Ares III site: Things are moving. Well aware of the implications,
she alerts everybody else; the changing images soon become essential viewing.
But they’ve no way of communicating with Mark, and so all they can do is watch.
Sanders also makes the executive
decision not to inform the Ares 3
crew, still months away from Earth, not wanting to compromise their
psychological well-being. Mitch strongly disapproves of this move, but is
overruled.
Back on Mars, still working
problems, Mark has recognized the need for some sort of communications. Blessed
with an excellent memory for space history, he recalls the existence of the
Pathfinder probe, which landed on Mars back in 1997 and performed its functions
superbly for three months, until (probably) its on-board battery failed. If the
Pathfinder could be recharged, its signal could be used for two-way
communication.
But even if the probe has
remained intact all these years, it’s in the Ares Vallis: also a lengthy
journey well beyond the capabilities of the Ares 3 rovers.
If you’re not hooked by now,
you’re made of stone.
Damon holds our attention throughout,
whether battling despair at each fresh setback, or grousing — half in
amusement, half deadly serious — over the insufferable limitations of Lewis’
collection of disco music. Mark is an excellent observer of his own actions,
and we readily accept that he’d constantly talk to himself, if only to relieve
the oppressive stillness of his
environment.
Daniels is authority personified
as Sanders: the guy forced to make unpopular decisions based on public
perception — which helps keep NASA funded — as opposed to emotional preference.
Bean chafes well as the guy who feels closest to the returning Ares 3 crew;
Wiig is ideal as the sort of mildly snarky PR wonk whose views, like Sanders’,
are apt to be unpopular.
Benedict Wong is appropriately
disheveled as JPL director Bruce Ng, whose team is tasked with a series of complex
assignments, in an effort to anticipate and mimic what Mark might be doing
(akin to the moment in Apollo 13,
when Earth-bound engineers confront a pile of stuff dumped on a table, and are
ordered to find a way to make the Command Module’s square oxygen filters work
in the Lunar Module’s round receptacles).
Donald Glover, finally, is
hilarious as Rich Purnell, a nerdy young “orbital dynamicist” whose messy,
litter-strewn cubbyhole will be recognized by every recently graduated computer
scientist lucky enough to get a job with the likes of Apple or Google. Glover’s
go-to moment comes during a droll meeting with Sanders and the other top dogs,
and it’s a scene destined to become famous when extracted on YouTube.
Production designer Arthur Max
does marvelous things on both planets, particularly with the functional
intricacies of Mark’s habitat. The Ares 3 interior is equally nifty, as is
NASA’s massive Mission Control center, and Purnell’s aforementioned corner of
clutter. (NASA’s behind-the-scenes cooperation is evident throughout.)
Visual effect supervisor Matt
Sloan and cinematographer Dariusz Wolski do equally fine work, particularly
with the massive Martian landscape that surrounds Mark’s activities. The 3D
cinematography, although properly integrated during production, doesn’t add all
that much ... although it does make the Ares 3 crew’s weightless activities
way-cool on a level Stanley Kubrick couldn’t even have imagined, back in the
days of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Harry Gregson-Williams’ score is
a mostly subtle presence, as befits such a drama, and works on an almost
subliminal level, frequently heightening our anxiety.
Everything is orchestrated to
precision by Scott, by now a longtime veteran of big-screen science-fiction,
whether horrific (Alien, Prometheus) or thoughtful (Blade Runner). He clearly respects the
genre, which is much more than can be said about most filmmakers.
The Martian is solid filmmaking and
suspenseful drama; it also functions as a sensational endorsement of both NASA
and all engineering disciplines. And if that drives more young viewers to such
careers, all the better.
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