George Clooney’s seventh directorial effort starts on a somber note. Following a heavily bearded, gaunt Clooney around a deserted Arctic base, we discover that the entire planet has been made virtually uninhabitable by a vague, unexplained environmental catastrophe (AKA global warming). This tour continues for ten minutes, during which some flashbacks are interspersed to let us know that there may be hope, as Clooney’s Dr Augustine Lofthouse details the potential for life on a small moon orbiting Jupiter. Then we learn that Lofthouse has some kind of a terminal illness. That’s a pretty fitting summation of The Midnight Sky, a film that constantly feels as though it is building towards a grand statement about humanity’s treatment of the planet and the potential to fix it, before descending into relentlessly boring, needlessly depressing tedium with no conclusion. This is a film about the eradication of life on earth and the potential to restart the human race, and yet, not a great deal actually happens.
Lofthouse’s lonely, existence comes to a halt when he discovers a small girl, Iris (Caoilinn Springall), hiding out in the observatory, terrified and strangely mute. As the two adapt to each other and form a wordless bond, they are shaken from their isolated existence by a radio signal received from returning spacecraft Aether, ending its round trip mission to establish a colony on the moon of Jupiter. The Aether is crewed by an unlikely mob of superstar actors, led by David Oyelowo’s Commander Adewole and including Felicity Jones as heavily pregnant communications expert Sully, Kyle Chandler’s hotshot pilot Mitchell and renowned Mexican-American actor Demián Bichir as Sanchez. As the crew hurtles towards Earth, mysteriously unable to communicate with anyone on the doomed planet, Augustine realises he is the only person capable of warning the astronauts of their impending doom and sets out on a daring mission, with Iris in tow, across the snowy wasteland to a nearby satellite capable of reaching the Aether.
The undeniable strength of Clooney’s opus is the visual presentation. It looks spectacular, with sprawling shots of the frozen Arctic tundra making you feel physically cold, capturing the sense of isolation that Augustine feels as potentially the last man on earth. Once Augustine and Iris embark on their trip, that picturesque landscape that looked so impressive from the safe windows of the observatory becomes a snowy hellscape for the pair, battling fierce blizzards that obscure the screen and hide shadowy threats in the madness. Conversely, Clooney shows us that there is also great beauty to be found out in the world, making his point for environmental conservatism hard to argue against when displaying the natural beauty of the Northern Lights, which shimmer with colour (just one of many scenes that were made for crystal clear 4K). When the story shifts to space it loses none of its visual flair, with the inventive, futuristic design of the Aether dropping jaws and setting it apart from others that populate the genre.
The narrative, on the other hand, is not as impressive, as Clooney seems laser focused on blaming audiences for their part in dooming the planet to its – some would argue – inevitable fate. What he doesn’t seem interested in is offering any solutions or commentary on how that fate could have been avoided, leaving the ensuing, glacially paced two hours a depressing, almost joyless slog. Clearly a brilliant mind, albeit one without much social acuity, there are attempts to humanise Augustine through flashbacks that suggest a past relationship and the sacrifice of that in order to devote himself to finding a habitable planet to save the human race. Played by Ethan Peck as a younger man – with a curious bit of digital trickery melding their voices to give a continuity to Augustine’s character – these scenes simply don’t do enough to make the mopey, boring lead any more interesting. He has sacrificed a lot, that is undeniable, but the self-pitying silence that fills most of the run-time becomes unbearable at times, as you pray for some action to break up the monotony.
That action comes in the form of the Aether and the bevy of talented actors who all do what they can with their thoroughly underwritten characters. Each has their own hook: Sully is the link between the ship and Augustine, Mitchell longs to see his family again, Maya (Tiffany Boone) is the inexperienced rookie and Commander Adewole furrows his brow throughout the whole affair, constantly worrying. You get the sense that most of these actors are here simply to work with Clooney rather than for the skin and bones roles they are afforded but the familiar faces do go a small way towards making the crew likeable. Clooney draws on his experience from Gravity in a spacewalk scene that feels wholly original as the crew jam out to “Sweet Caroline” on the radio before turning into a fiasco once struck by a meteor shower. It’s frantic filmmaking that enthrals for a brief few minutes before cutting back to our moody protagonist, the fallout of the accident largely inconsequential given our nonchalance towards the crew.
At the end of it all, The Midnight Sky seems about as pointless as the Aether’s mission. Clooney’s intention to discuss and break down climate change is admirable but doesn’t go anywhere because he refuses to actually dive in, content to play the blame game and leave it at that. Similarly the entire premise of the film essentially results in the Aether doing a U-turn and heading back to their colony, the journey largely inconsequential. An unearned late game revelation will likely have audiences scratching their heads as to the point given the lack of development between Augustine and Iris, but seems to function to give Clooney’s character some form of catharsis. For all its visual flair and the stacks of cash that were thrown at Clooney to make it, the esteemed actor-director forgot to give us a story or characters worth caring about. If there was ever an argument to be made for Netflix imposing a little more control or oversight over some of its more expensive films, this is the prime example.
The Midnight Sky stars George Clooney, Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo, Caoilinn Springall, Demián Bichir, Tiffany Boone, Ethan Peck, Sophie Rundle & Kyle Chandler – Streaming on Netflix now.