Nathaniel Shepherd’s (Gary Oldman) space company sends the first colonists to Mars in 2018 [maybe not the best year to choose for a movie made in 2017]. After takeoff, the mission commander is found to be pregnant. She gives birth on Mars and promptly dies. Shepherd decides to keep the baby a secret to preserve the company’s reputation. Sixteen years later, the now teen Gardner (Asa Butterfield) gets an OK to go to Earth. Once there, he escapes from quarantine and finds Tulsa (Britt Robertson), the “tough” girl he’d chatted with online. The two go in search of his unknown father, with Shepherd and mother-surrogate astronaut Kendra Wyndham (Carla Gugino) in pursuit.
This is what gives young adult SF a bad name.
Also, this is what gives commercial space ventures a bad name. The film is an unintentional argument against corporations running a space program as they might act like this.
The weakness of the science in this “science fiction” film is a minor thing, but it’s hard for me to ignore. Somethings are simply wrong, such as instantaneous communication with Mars. Others stretch credibility beyond breaking, such as missing a second-or-so trimester pregnancy in an astronaut’s physical exams. And a few need explanation, such as how they fed a newborn on Mars. And best not to think about how the filmmakers think gravity works.
Once Gardner gets to Earth, we have a typical teens-on-the-run romance between a twenty-year-old actor who could pass for eighteen and a twenty-seven-year-old actress who can pull off twenty-seven but not a year younger. Their speeches (they speak only in speeches) and adventures are clichéd material, but the best part of the film. It’s silly even for a YA romance—I had no idea stealing cars was so easy—but then I’m not the target audience. Unfortunately The Space Between Us then tries to be deep (we even get a “meaningful” montage…) and this is a not a film that can handle deep. Butterfield’s giving a soliloquy on love is kinda cute; doing the same thing on the meaning of life… Not so much.
When we aren’t with the twenty-plus-year-old teens, we are with an over-acting Oldman, who expresses all emotions by banging his fists, crying out to the sky, and pacing. It does have the odd effect of making the teens look reasonable.
The Space Between Us hits a few of the requisite emotional beats. A majority of the characters aren’t annoying and the film is passably made. There’s no reason to see it, but no reason to avoid it either. If you are a tween girl, add a reel.