The Space Between Us is a film that has an interesting premise and lots of missed potential. It doesn’t feel like the writers (Allan Loeb, Stewart Schill, and Richard Barton Lewis) didn’t believe people would stay entertained by a intergalactic love story with a rites of passage element. Instead, they force some chase sequences, a country wide man-hunt, and a few twists that really don’t feel needed.
The Space Between Us fails pretty much across the board
The highlight of the movie is definitely Asa Butterfield as Gardner Elliot. Gardner was born on Mars after his mother, Sarah (Janet Montgomery), went on her space mission pregnant. The space organization didn’t know and now feels pressure to hide the birth. 16 years later Gardner is longing to come to earth and find his father. He has also made friends with Tulsa (Britt Robertson) who he wants to meet in person.
Nathaniel Shepherd (Gary Oldman) is introduced as a motivational speaker who turns out to be the mastermind behind East Texas, the Mars habitat that the astronauts are going to. Tom Chen (BD Wong) appears to be in charge of NASA or something, it’s kind of unclear, but he’s in charge. Both men worry that this secret could cost them their habitat so they opted to keep it secret. Now, they’ve decided to bring him back to Earth, but they are worried he won’t be able to live in Earth’s atmosphere.
From there, the movie fails in almost every aspect. It turns into a series of ridiculous and illogical moments. NASA never comes out and tells the world about Gardner, which seems like the most likely thing they would have done. Instead, he breaks out in search of Tulsa and his father. If that were the story, it may have been a lot of fun. In fact, that is the best part of the film.
The chemistry between Butterfield and Robertson is great. However, Tulsa is a cliche teenage girl who is full of anger after being a part of the foster system. There are a few elements in her story that never really add up to a whole lot of things. For example, one of the first scenes we see of Tulsa is her apprehensively playing the piano alone at school. She stops abruptly when some boys start looking in through a window. They chase her to her motorcycle where she makes a swift getaway. You’re not missing anything, that’s all the movie gives and it makes no sense. The music element comes back, but ultimately feels unnecessary and a throw away component.
It would be very easy to nitpick a lot of the bad in the movie. There is a twist, some of it’s predictable, and Oldman feels a bit over-the-top at times. He may be so used to playing these big character roles that when he has one that can be quiet and normal he doesn’t know how to play it. Nathaniel is a brilliant scientist who takes it on himself to lead the manhunt for Gardner, is accompanied by Kendra Wyndham (Carla Gugino). Kendra is basically Garnder’s foster mother, which is another story they really only touch on and feels under developed. The two fight over things that don’t make sense and react to things in ways that don’t feel genuine.
Final Thoughts
The highlight of the film is the love story between Tulsa and Gardner. Gardner’s naivety and innocence as a result of having grownup on Mars is often charming and endearing. However, the weak plot and the bad script make the film one most people should avoid. It seems there is potential for a better movie with a similar premise. The Space Between Us earns the Not a Total Waste of Time rating.
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