Astronaut (2020) - Movie Review

“Keep up the good fight, ‘cause what’s the alternative?”

This is one of the first lines in the film, spoken to Richard Dreyfuss’ Angus during a medical check-up. It’s one of those early bits of dialogue in a film that ends up explaining the bulk of what is to follow, as we see Angus’ attempts to win a lottery for a ticket on the first commercial flight into space.

After sitting through (and reviewing) far too many condescending pieces of elder-inclined cinema, it is genuinely refreshing to see not an absence of that condescension, but a re-alignment of it to highlight it as part of the larger problem, that being how we treat our older neighbours. It can get darkly comical at times how much the residents of a nursing home Angus gets shuffled into are constantly reminded of their mortality, with equal vigour to the reminders that they’re closer to the end of the line than most.

Consider that treatment as the ‘alternative’: Being stuck on a planet where most view you as a burden or a ticking clock about to run down. In the face of that as the final leg of a life worth lived, a chance to get in with Space Willy Wonka (AKA Colm Feore’s Marcus Brown, the sponsor of the mission) seems worth taking. Common advice is to follow one’s dreams, but notice how often those same people end up being the first to try and over-rationalise that dream and make it seem impossible to grasp.

Angus serves as the retort to that, one channelled with incredible warmth through Dreyfuss’ performance. As his interstellar dream naturally unfurls throughout, he never falls into the trap of being the pity party for the audience, which even a few of his own roles over the last few years wound up being. He is simply someone who, despite having plenty of life and knowledge within him yet, keeps being given the deficit of the doubt, and wants to fulfill not just his own dream but also those who shoot as far as he does.

The film overall is quite simple, to the point of being dry-toast-plain at times, and its emphasis on sentiment even managed to rub me the wrong way (a feat about as impressive as making it onto the short list for a space voyage like this through sheer probability), but there’s still something a little comforting to be found here.

Seeing Dreyfuss, Graham Greene, and even a brief appearance from Canadian legend Colin Mochrie on-screen definitely boosts the final product, but considering its target demographic and the pedigree of everyone involved (this is the feature debut for writer/director Shelagh McLeod, and a decent one at that), it makes for a pleasant-enough distraction. Considering how 2020 has turned out thus far, I don’t really see an issue with that.