Ad Astra

My Dad and I have been anticipating the movie Ad Astra for quite some time and we were able to see it last night.  We both thought it was brilliant!  In the near future, the Earth is being threatened by solar power surges which U.S. Space Command (SpaceCom) has traced to the Lima Project.   A group was sent to the far reaches of the Solar System to search for intelligent life under the command of Dr. Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), a legendary astronaut who abandoned his wife and son for the mission, twenty-six years ago.  They lost communication with McBride sixteen years ago and he was presumed dead but now they have reason to believe he is still alive.  McBride's son Roy (Brad Pitt) is also a decorated astronaut whose personal life has suffered as a result of his dedication to the job.  He is given the mission to travel to Mars to send a communication to his father but once he gets there he learns that SpaceCom may have other plans for the mission and that his father might not be the hero he has always believed him to be.  He sends an emotional appeal to his father but is then judged to be psychologically unfit to continue with the mission.  He sneaks aboard the ship traveling to the Lima Project base stationed near Neptune and he both longs for and dreads a meeting with his father.  While this movie does have some spectacular action sequences, including an amazing free-fall from a space antenna, a lunar rover chase, a dramatic manual landing on Mars, and a flight through space that is only propelled by the thrusters on a spacesuit, it is primarily a psychological portrait of a man who both reveres his father but fears that he is becoming like him.  Roy's character arc is incredibly satisfying and the ultimate message about the universe is strangely positive. Pitt gives an understated but riveting performance that is among his best, especially in the scene where he confronts his father.  I really enjoyed the depiction of space travel, especially the commercial flights to the moon operated by Virgin Atlantic, and the visual effects are spectacular.  This may not be the action adventure that people are expecting from a space movie but it is a meditative, haunting, and powerful masterpiece.  I will be thinking about it for days to come and I highly recommend it!