150 Word Review: 'Ad Astra' (2019)

Let all the children boogie

Photo: 20th Century Fox

Imagine Apocalypse Now, set in our solar system, and instead of hunting a mad colonel, it’s a deadbeat dad. This is director James Gray’s Ad Astra, a sci-fi adventure with plenty of A+ action: moon pirates, killer space monkeys, zero-g fist fights. But it’s also a somber character sketch about squashing down trauma.

Brad Pitt is at his softest and most sensitive as the son of a long-lost astronaut. There are times when Pitt seems confused, especially when delivering long, slightly leaden voice-over narrations. Craggy Tommy Lee Jones has what amounts to a glorified cameo as Pitt’s father, who chose the cold of space over the warmth of family on Earth. Instead of therapy, Pitt’s character learns how to literally let go during a harrowing spacewalk among the rings of Neptune.

The movie is cold, distant, and almost pretentious. Then Gray pulls off a switcheroo: a child’s wounds are healed.

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