The Space Between Us (2016)

Movie Name/Year: The Space Between Us (2016)

Genre: Adventure, Drama, Romance

Length: 120 minutes

Rating: PG-13

Production/Distribution: Los Angeles Media Fund (LAMF), STX Entertainment, Southpaw Entertainment (I), Entertainment Film Distributors, SF Studios, Colossal Mega Films, Diamond Films, Golden Village Pictures, Gulf Film, Impuls Pictures, Odeon, TOBIS Film, The Searchers, Batrax Entertainment, Cinemundo, Film & TV House, Film1, GEM Entertainment, Mongkol Major, Noori Pictures, Pinema, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (UPHE), Universum Film (UFA), VVS Films

Director: Peter Chelsom

Writer: Allan Loeb, Stewart Schill, Richard Barton Lewis

Actors: Gary Oldman, Janet Montgomery, Trey Tucker, Scott Takeda, Adande ‘Swoozie’ Thorne, BD Wong, Lauren Chavez-Myers, Morse Bicknell, Beth Bailey, Asa Butterfield, Carla Gugino, Britt Robertson, Luce Rains, Colin Egglesfield

Blurb from IMDb: The first human born on Mars travels to Earth for the first time, experiencing the wonders of the planet through fresh eyes. He embarks on an adventure with a street smart girl to discover how he came to be.

Selina’s Point of View:

The Space Between Us did not make a good first impression.

I was looking forward to seeing it, there are some great actors involved in the film, but I was just about immediately unimpressed. The audience is introduced to the plot during a speech given by Gary Oldman’s (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Lawless, The Book of Eli) character. During the scene, we meet the astronauts that will be heading to Mars. Once they’re in the shuttle and off world, we find out the female amongst them is pregnant.

That’s all fine. Just from watching the trailers, you can get all that. My problem is: if they were going to show us all that – then why didn’t they actually put any effort into it?

Remarkably, the 9-month pregnant woman fits into her space suit. That’s the first thing that threw me off. They also just happened to have that receiving blanket handy that every hospital I’ve ever been to uses. If you’ve had a kid, then you know the one. That’s just lazy direction.

I can understand having to gloss over the suit situation… but the blanket? You’re telling me that there wasn’t any way to make that a touch more realistic? Have the team use a different kind of cloth that would made more sense for them to have handy? Come on now.

I know it seems like a small issue, but that blanket told me immediately that the script and direction would not deserve the talent and plot that it was paired up with, and I was right.

If there’s a trope that exists in a romantic drama, this movie hit it. The writing was exceptionally lazy, as well.

After all that, it either wasn’t marketed or edited right. As much as it seemed The Space Between Us should have been a romance, the actual love story felt shoe-horned in. For roughly the first hour of the film, there was no evidence of a budding romance except for a couple of barely-there scenes where the two main characters were messaging each other online.

It almost felt like the movie was supposed to be a coming of age story about this boy who was born on Mars finally getting to return to Earth – but a production company demanded a love story be added.

The film could have either been cut down to a shorter time, or made into two completely separate films with completely separate genres.

I hate how utterly mediocre The Space Between Us is. The fact is, it should have been great. It had a creative and interesting plot with a phenomenal cast. The actors were all at the top of their game, too. Not one of them held back. There was no excuse for the writing and directing… and the editing, for that matter, to be as bad as it was.

The good and the bad balance out enough so that it’s not awful - just bland, out of place, and mediocre.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 16%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 55%

Metascore – 33/100

Metacritic User Score – 5.0/10

IMDB Score – 6.4/10

CinemaScore – A-

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 2/5

Movie Trailer: