The Space Between Us
(USA, 120 min.)
Dir. Peter Chelsom, Writ. Allan Loeb
Starring: Asa Butterfield, Britt Robertson, Carla Gugino, Gary Oldman
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| Britt Robertson and Asa Butterfield star in The Space Between Us. VVS Films |
Interplanetary romance is a claim that few can make, no
matter how alien one’s ex-lover might be. If men are from Mars and women are
from Venus, then a relationship between a Martian and an Earthling isn’t too
farfetched. There’s less space between the red dot in the sky and the blue one,
compared to the red and the yellow.
The Space Between Us redefines the concept of a long-distance relationship as Mars-born teen Gardner Elliot (Hugo’s Asa Butterfield) finds himself head over heels in love with Earthling Tulsa (Britt Robertson, Cake). They have a spark that travels all 401 million miles between them and, ever the love-struck puppy, Gardner aims to bridge the gap. The gallantry is extreme, even by today’s Promposal standards.
The thing with Gardner is that he doesn’t know life on Earth
despite being a human. The film begins as Gardner’s mom (Janet Montgomery)
discovers that she’s pregnant while leading a mission to Mars. She dies in
childbirth, leaving a baby on the red planet and a PR nightmare back on Earth.
This dilemma falls on the shoulders of Nathaniel Shepard (Gary Oldman), the
bigwig behind the operation, who decides to keep the baby a secret and avoid
the likelihood of killing him on re-entry. If the mission is to test the
possibility of life on Mars, then Gardner offers fortuitous test tube fruit.
Cut to the awkward puberty years, however, and growing up in
space isn’t very fun. Despite the sensitive parenting by space surrogate/Mars
Mommy Kendra (Carla Gugino), Gardner yearns to feel gravity and sweep Tulsa off
her feet. There’s also the chance of meeting the father he never had.
The Space Between Us alternates
between moments of genuine sweetness and outright cheese as Gardner and Tulsa
evade Shepard and the space police while searching for Gardner’s missing
father. The film stumbles when it puts the lovers on the lam and lets Tulsa (an
all-around terribly written character) steal a plane from her deadbeat father
(although she’s apparently under care of child services…) to fly the coop. More
often than not, the premise of a baby being born in space and making it back to
Earth is the least preposterous thing about The
Space Between Us.
On the other hand, some scenes, like the young lovers
enjoying the romantic whiff of the outdoors atop a cliff in Arizona, use
parallels between the natural landscapes of Earth and Mars to surprisingly
novel effect. The young actors are at their best when director Peter Chelsom (Hector and the Search for Happiness)
lets them play loose and free, like one fun and natural scene in which the pair
ad-libs over burgers in the car.
Screenwriter Allan Loeb packs a lot of plot within this
teen-targeted romance and while the premise of crossing The Fault in Our Stars with The Martian might sound like reason to hit the ejector seat, the result is
surprisingly good. The Space Between Us
is a sweet romance about human connection and the little things on Earth that
make life grand. The film plays with a running theme that begins when Gardner
encounters a homeless man in the desert and asks, “What is your favourite thing
about Earth?” The question arises throughout the film with each response
offering something small, unique, and meaningful, like the pleasure in feeling
the rain wash everything clean, straight through to Gardner’s own confrontation
with the inevitable answer to the query.
Butterfield offers a charming lead as Gardner by playing
into the character’s innocence and sense of wonder. He also shows off some
natural skills for comedy when Gardner visits a high school for the first time.
The teen’s in unique territory as a character who discovers life on Earth for
the first time and Butterfield handles the physical challenges of the
performance well by imbuing Gardner with a bumbly gait to show the awkwardness
of discovering gravity. The boy looks like as if he has the wobbly knees of a
kid in love.
The Space Between Us opens in theatres Feb. 3.
