The Space Between Us (2017)
Directed by Peter Chelsom
A young man raised by scientists on Mars returns to Earth to find his father.
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If you’re wondering what the commercial and critical success of last year’s Ridley Scott hit The Martian has to do with the new release The Space Between Us , the answer is; well sorta everything.
That’s the main takeaway of Peter Chelsom’s sci-fi romance aimed at teens who might prove more indulgent of its sentimental clichés than adults who have made such films as Gravity and The Martian runaway hits.
A stranded engineer in The Martian grows vegetables on the arid planet and faster than Matt Damon can say, “How do you like them potatoes?”
The space launch sequences are seamless, and the Mars vista feels appropriately derivative of The Martian.
What might have been an interesting teen cross between “The Martian” and “Starman” instead goes a sadly conventional route in “The Space Between Us,” making for a bland romance-on-the-run movie that might not actually be based on a YA novel, but sure feels as though it were—very much like a less grittier remake of the deservedly forgotten Anthony Michael Hall kiddie noir “Out of Bounds,” moved from the city to the desert and given a sci-fi twist.
Working with a budget that allows for space imagery on par with anything in “The Martian,” Chelsom buys himself plenty of time to flesh out his unique teen hero and humanize the adult characters who wind up chasing him across the United States.
Producers tapped Peter Chelsom (director of such toxic box office flops as “Town & Country” and “Hector and the Search for Happiness”) to helm “The Space Between Us,” and the film flails around trying to achieve the same broad heartland-friendly humor of Chelsom’s last hit, “Hannah Montana: The Movie.” Nathaniel and Kendra chase the kids via helicopter as Gardner discovers the joys of Earth life — stealing cars, crashing crop-dusters, seeing the Grand Canyon and the cliffs of Malibu — while ominous nosebleeds serve to remind that all this fun is finite.
The film was directed by Peter Chelsom, a Brit who made two tartly sweet films in the 1990s, Hear My Song and Funny Bones, before devolving to such projects as Hannah Montana: The Movie.
Directed by Peter Chelsom, whose work includes mega-flop “Town & Country,” as well as “Hannah Montana: The Movie,” and “Hector and the Search for Happiness,” “The Space Between Us” is a special kind of bad movie, borne out of loopy misguided ideas rather than lazy, callous ones (the latter is far more common).
But Peter Chelsom, whose previous credits include Shall We Dance?, Serendipity, and Hannah Montana: The Movie keeps the movie firmly grounded in maudlin mediocrity.
To his credit, director Peter Chelsom (a veteran studio hand responsible for projects that range from “Serendipity” to “Hannah Montana: The Movie”) graces the film with an old-fashioned patience and a genuine sense of splendor.
British director Peter Chelsom used to be known for quirky little films like "Funny Bones" and "The Mighty," but his latest have been the poorly received "Hannah Montana: The Movie" and "Hector and the Search for Happiness."
So yeah, when Gardner finally gets a chance to visit Earth for his sixteenth birthday — and promptly escapes his NASA enclosure so he can go visit Tulsa, find his dad, and incite the “Midnight Special”-esque chase that ensues — he doesn’t understand sarcasm and he almost has a nervous breakdown at the sight of a horse.
The remarkably trusting Tulsa breaks numerous laws to help Gardner run from his well-meaning NASA handlers, in a plot reminiscent of ’80s sci-fi movies like E.T. and Firestarter (or Jeff Nichols’ recent Midnight Special).