The Midnight Sky (2020)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
George Clooney often tackles ambitious projects and The Midnight Sky, telling two parallel stories at the same time aims for cerebral science-fiction.
Clooney forges great chemistry with child actor Caoilinn Springall, as they are forced to survive together in the blistering cold Arctic.
Technically well-made, Clooney’s love for science-fiction and human emotion is readily apparent from the opening frame to the last.
NO
More bleak than I imagine Clooney intended, The Midnight Sky deals with a post-apocalyptic world and dwells in the loneliness on Earth and in space.
The emotional beats land with a whimper and the film feels as if it goes through a lot of steps to get to a place we can kind of see coming long before characters seem to do.
I have to say, Clooney gives this his all but in totality, I’m not entirely sure I understand the point of all of this.
OUR REVIEW
George Clooney pours his heart into The Midnight Sky, an emotionally charged dual narrative of people lost and adrift both on Earth and outside of the Earth’s orbit. Inspired by the award-winning novel, “Good Morning, Midnight” by Lily Brooks-Dalton, Clooney wears a multi-hyphenate hat in his latest effort; that of Director, Co-Producer, and lead actor.
This science-fiction dystopian tale takes place in 2049, where Dr. Augustine Lofthouse (Clooney) is living alone in the Barbeau Observatory, a state-of-the-art compound in the Arctic. We are three weeks removed from “The Event,” which led to a massive evacuation of the facility where researchers and scientists and families attempted to relocate underground. Lofthouse stayed behind and spends his time battling what appears to be a terminal illness, while hoping to contact a spaceship, the Aether, returning from a two-year mission to investigate a planet Lofthouse discovered years before.
Determining the planet, known as K-23, is hospitable for human life, the crew, led by Sully (Felicity Jones) and her partner in work and in life, Tom (David Oyelowo), are facing an imminent return. However, Dr. Lofthouse is desperate to reach them, convinced they have no idea what they will be encountering if they continue their path back home.
Lofthouse leads a habitual life, not all that different from the one Matt Damon’s character experienced in The Martian. This situation however proves bleaker and more colorless. Lofthouse seems to be waiting something out. And based on his shuffled demeanor, thick matted beard, and hollow, sunken eyes, we cannot help but believe what he is waiting for feels rather ominous.
The Midnight Sky is a curious film, telling two seemingly disparate stories at the same time. With Lofthouse’s story, we have flashbacks to when Lofthouse (Ethan Peck) tried to balance his devotion to science and the discovery of K-23, with a devotion to wife Jean (Sophie Rundle) and their young child. As one can imagine, the science won out and as he continues to remain isolated in the frigid cold of the Arctic, Clooney’s face becomes a canvas of regret and disappointment.
Up in space, the Aether crew are hopeful in returning home. Kyle Chandler and Demián Bichir play seasoned veterans who oversee the navigation of the ship alongside Sully and Tom, and Maya (Tiffany Boone) is the relative newcomer who has learned a great deal from her mentors.
Throughout The Midnight Sky, common themes like communication and connection appear and reappear in different forms. The addition of a rogue 7-year-old stowaway named Iris (Caoilinn Springall) startles Lofthouse. Opting not to speak, the two coexist with the ailing doc softening and warming to Iris’ presence in his life each day.
Purpose is also a key theme here, but The Midnight Sky is not necessarily here for the uplift. Clooney, working with a screenplay adaptation by Mark L. Smith (The Revenant, Overlord), digs in deep to the somber nature of what surrounds every frame, word, look, and moment. There is a resignation to all this which makes it hard to root for anyone’s success. Clooney never really gives us moments to cling on to, and so we wonder, and we wait, and we try to figure out a possible solution which can restore everyone to some level of wholeness.
Clooney’s dabbled in science-fiction more than once. Starring in Steven Soderbergh’s 2002 remake of Solaris, the film impressed critics and turned off audiences. He found greater success appearing in Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón’s groundbreaking 2013 Oscar-winning film alongside Sandra Bullock. And let’s not forget Disney’s Tomorrowland film either.
As a director of sci-fi though, Clooney again seems adrift. Not just with characters wrestling with loss, loneliness, and uncertainty, but in trying to convince us to care for all involved. The performances in and of itself are not bad; far from them with Clooney creating some wonderful moments with Springall. A sequence involving Maya, Sully, and Tom venturing out of the Aether is well conceived, if not predictable, yet still manages to find the film’s only rush of thrills and pure emotion.
Alexandre Desplat’s score, good as it may be, can only enhance so much. And even with some memorable scenes embedded with the film’s nearly two-hour running time, The Midnight Sky is often too cold and distant to truly deliver the dramatic elements and emotional connections Clooney seems so desperate to achieve.
CAST & CREW
Starring: George Clooney, Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo, Caoilinn Springall, Kyle Chandler, Demián Bichir, Tiffany Boone, Sophie Rundle, Ethan Peck.
Director: George Clooney
Written by: Mark L. Smith
Adapted from the novel, “Good Morning, Midnight” by Lily Brooks-Dalton
Release Date: December 11, 2020 (theaters); December 23, 2020 (Netflix)
Netflix