I knew nothing about this film until I saw the trailer and I watched it mainly for Eva Green and the astronaut training background which looked (and was) very realistic.
The job of a trailer is to sell the film but I think the one I saw gave a fair presentation of this as a character piece with astronaut training as the background. Not sure why people thought it would be a sci-fi film (which I like) as there are no shots in space nor even in the trailer I saw of the rocket taking off. Eva Green has done quite a bit of fantasy/quirky characters but not much straight out action since Bond.
First the good. Eva Green is excellent as is Zelie Boulant as her daughter. I'm not the biggest fan of children in films but she came over as very natural and more of a challenge for two scientists to have a dyslexic child rather than a prodigy. The overall look of the film and cinematography is very good and I liked the scenes filmed in Russia. It had a very functional and slightly run down look as opposed to the Hollywood gloss when NASA is depicted in films.
There are some nice touches of expecting women to fit into a male environment - short hair is easier, if she wants feminine hygiene products as opposed to the alternative then they are part of her weight allowance (luxury products!).
I also liked some of the character aspects such as the chaperone describing the daughter as a chatterbox talking about a boy she liked when she barely talked to her mother.
For a female orientated film the male characters are all reasonably presented with their own flaws rather than hated on - the father who has his daughter for occasional weekends is capable of looking after her, although where in the world is it acceptable to leave an 8 year old on their own for hours? I was concerned that Matt Dillon's character would be presented as a MCP after the scene in the trailer where he introduces Eva Green's character and said that at least with a French woman the food will be good (although it is not uncommon in my experience for a man to introduce a woman with a supposedly humorous comment that is actually demeaning), but he was overall OK but with a different background/attitude (military versus scientific) that could have been built on.
The press/social media aspect was well presented (and intrusive) and shows how important press coverage is to the space program to keep it in the public eye and secure funding.
Now for the very very very bad. That scene 10 minutes before the end that other reviewers have mentioned which derails the realism and nearly destroys the film. I think it is done to redeem the mother and prove that you can have it all. It is unnecessary as Eva Green is an excellent actress who has made the mother a sympathetic character. They then make it worse by the next scene which is meant to make it all OK and if you are not convinced then here is a shot of Ms Green's (admittedly very nice) breasts which is out of keeping with the rest of the film - there had been some minor nudity prior to that which I think showed her vulnerability.
I think it would have been better for the promised thing either not to be done, be done prior to the final stages of preparation or for the father to do it. It would show that having one thing doesn't mean you can't have the other thing but sacrifices will always have to be made.
You would also have been left wondering what the mother/daughter relationship would be like when she returned.
The job of a trailer is to sell the film but I think the one I saw gave a fair presentation of this as a character piece with astronaut training as the background. Not sure why people thought it would be a sci-fi film (which I like) as there are no shots in space nor even in the trailer I saw of the rocket taking off. Eva Green has done quite a bit of fantasy/quirky characters but not much straight out action since Bond.
First the good. Eva Green is excellent as is Zelie Boulant as her daughter. I'm not the biggest fan of children in films but she came over as very natural and more of a challenge for two scientists to have a dyslexic child rather than a prodigy. The overall look of the film and cinematography is very good and I liked the scenes filmed in Russia. It had a very functional and slightly run down look as opposed to the Hollywood gloss when NASA is depicted in films.
There are some nice touches of expecting women to fit into a male environment - short hair is easier, if she wants feminine hygiene products as opposed to the alternative then they are part of her weight allowance (luxury products!).
I also liked some of the character aspects such as the chaperone describing the daughter as a chatterbox talking about a boy she liked when she barely talked to her mother.
For a female orientated film the male characters are all reasonably presented with their own flaws rather than hated on - the father who has his daughter for occasional weekends is capable of looking after her, although where in the world is it acceptable to leave an 8 year old on their own for hours? I was concerned that Matt Dillon's character would be presented as a MCP after the scene in the trailer where he introduces Eva Green's character and said that at least with a French woman the food will be good (although it is not uncommon in my experience for a man to introduce a woman with a supposedly humorous comment that is actually demeaning), but he was overall OK but with a different background/attitude (military versus scientific) that could have been built on.
The press/social media aspect was well presented (and intrusive) and shows how important press coverage is to the space program to keep it in the public eye and secure funding.
Now for the very very very bad. That scene 10 minutes before the end that other reviewers have mentioned which derails the realism and nearly destroys the film. I think it is done to redeem the mother and prove that you can have it all. It is unnecessary as Eva Green is an excellent actress who has made the mother a sympathetic character. They then make it worse by the next scene which is meant to make it all OK and if you are not convinced then here is a shot of Ms Green's (admittedly very nice) breasts which is out of keeping with the rest of the film - there had been some minor nudity prior to that which I think showed her vulnerability.
I think it would have been better for the promised thing either not to be done, be done prior to the final stages of preparation or for the father to do it. It would show that having one thing doesn't mean you can't have the other thing but sacrifices will always have to be made.
You would also have been left wondering what the mother/daughter relationship would be like when she returned.