Spaceman (15)

Dir: Johan Renck

Cast: Adam Sandler, Carey Mulligan, Kunal Nayyar, Lena Olin, Isabelle Rossellini, Paul Dano

An uncharacteristically reserved performance from Adam Sandler provides a surprising amount of emotional weight to this otherwise drab sci-fi drama.

There have been fleeting signs of untapped dramatic potential throughout the career of illustrious comedian Adam Sandler. Despite becoming a household name following his work on Saturday Night Live, and a subsequent string of increasingly disappointing comedies, it is for his more dramatic roles that Sandler has recieved the best critical attention of his career.

Sandler is an unquestionably talented comedian as demonstrated in his more beloved comedy flicks: Billy Madison (1995), Happy Gilmore (1996) and The Waterboy (1998), and it is in his portrayal of these titular characters where Sandler is at his funniest. Sandler has always managed to pull of the feat of making these central characters loveable despite their often moronic behaviour and psychopathic tendencies. It is the sense of genuine internal turmoil within Sandler that garnered the attention of Paul Thomas Anderson, who cast Sandler as the lead in his excellent romantic comedy-drama Punch-Drunk Love (2002). There was plenty of scepticism following the casting at the time, as it was considered a bold choice by the then up-and-coming Anderson, but it ultimately paid off as both the film and Sandler’s performance would go on to receive critical praise.

Since this dramatic breakout over two decades ago, Sandler has largely focused on his comedic roles but has gone on to receive further attention for his return to dramatic roles in Noah Baumbach‘s The Meyerowitz Stories (2017) and Josh and Benny Safdie‘s Uncut Gems (2019).

The latest dramatic role undertaken by Sandler is in the Netflix produced sci-fi drama Spaceman, which had its world premiere at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival. Directed by Swedish filmmaker Johan Renck, ‘Spaceman’ is an adaptation of the highly acclaimed Czech novel ‘Spaceman of Bohemia’, which was published in 2017.

The film stars Sandler as Czech astronaut Jakub Procházka, who is half way into his 12 month space mission investigating a mysterious cloud of particles lying beyond Jupiter. Jakub is struggling with loneliness and misses his wife ,Lenka (Carey Mulligan), who has recently stopped contacting Jakub as she felt abandoned by her husband when he left her and their unborn daughter to go on the mission. Jakub’s commanding officer, Commissioner Tuma (Isabella Rossellini), intercepts a message from Lenka, stating she wants to leave Jakub. At fear of compromising the mission, Tuma refuses to relay the message to Jakub, fearing it will worsen his already deteriorating mental state.

Days later, Jakub finds a spider-like alien creature inside a compartment of his ship, whom he names Hanuš (Paul Dano). Hanuš possesses telepathic abilities and begins to explore the Jakub’s memories in order to gain a batter understanding of the human race. While initially frightened and hesitant of his new shipmate, Jakub’s mental state begins to improve, no longer feeling alone in Hanuš’ company. The two divergent species begin to bond over their loneliness having felt ‘cast-out’ by their own, as they make their way through space towards the mysterious “Chopra” cloud.

Once again Sandler excels here in a dramatic role but this time round the 57-year old remains surprisingly subdued throughout his screentime. This is a side to Sandler I don’t think I have seen before in film, a quiet and restrained performance, devoid of any uncontrollable outbursts of idiocy or rage. Instead Sandler is able to draw from raw emotion as Jakub, who despite having his flaws, is nowhere near as insufferable as the majority of Sandler’s previous characters. Sandler’s sunken face dominates the screen within the confines of the claustrophobic spaceship and despite the past wrong doings in his relationship with Lenka, you cannot help but feel sorry for the cosmonaut.

Unlike our central protagonist, his wife Lenka is massively underwritten, with no real backstory of her own to match that of Jakub’s. This may well be a case of presenting a character with no dreams of her own, explaining her initial attraction to Jakub, as the one with greater aspirations in life. Despite having very little to work with to help showcase Sandler’s dramatic turn, an actress as talented as Carey Mulligan still manages to claw back a solid supporting performance.

The performances managed to just about keep me engaged despite an otherwise sombre and meandering narrative, which like Jakub’s ship, seems to slowly drift by. It is this moderate pacing and despondent tone that may prove too much for some viewers, who will ultimately either tune out or fall asleep as a result.

Renck, was clearly aiming for the heights of the great existential sci-fi dramas of the past such as Solaris (1972), Moon (2009) and Ad Astra (2019), but ‘Spaceman’ fails to fully explore its central themes of isolation, memory and identity to the levels of those listed above. However, thanks to Sandler’s reserved but captivating performance, as well as a typically beautiful score by the great Max Richter, there is a surprising amount of emotional weight whenever Jakub interacts with his (possibly imaginary) arachnid friend.

Spaceman is now available to stream on Netflix