"Ad Astra": Venice Review | view

Dir: James Gray. WE. 2019. 123mins

In Ad Astra, an emotionally closed astronaut travels the solar system to find his father, long gone – and, perhaps, he finally manages to get closer to the man whose absence has left a psychic scar. The dramatic science-fiction drama directed by director James Gray is about a metaphorical and literal journey, anchored with confidence by Brad Pitt and playing an enigma that takes his father with him as a ghost member; he who weighs it down and invisibly influences the adult he has become. Although primarily a meditative experience, Ad Astra also gives way to superb suspense sequences, thus giving rise to a stimulating film with issues of life and death.

Ad Astra rests on Pitt's shoulders, and he delivers a performance full of painful melancholy

Presented in Venice, the film will be shown in the United Kingdom on September 18 and in the United States two days later. Pitt's popularity will be put to the test: Ad Astra is not a disconcerting space adventure, so those looking for a blockbuster escape will be disappointed. But strong critics and the prestige of serious science fiction can attract discriminating viewers.

In the near future, the film will feature Pitt and Roy, an astronaut who has a hard time being close to people – especially his ex-Eve (Liv Tyler), who has spared no effort. The US government recruits Roy for a dangerous mission. He has to go to Neptune, the Lima project site, to see if he is in any way connected to the cataclysmic energies that are heading towards the Earth and threatening his survival. But as his superiors are well aware, the Lima Project was led by Roy's father, Clifford (Tommy Lee Jones), the most decorated American astronaut, who has not been heard in decades.

Just like Gray's latest film, The lost city of Z, Ad Astra It may sound like a traditional adventure tale, but in reality it is an intellectually sophisticated and meticulously designed inner journey in which a lonely man fights with his demons. Certainly, there is a familiarity with this Heart of darkness Roy's low, whispered voice-over often adds another level of convention. But despite these limitations – and the fact that Tyler is relegated to a skeletal role of disappointed lovers – this gripping film delves deeply into his father-son themes.

Ad Astra rests on Pitt's shoulders and he delivers a show of painful melancholy. Although it is hoped that the voice-over has not been so present – Roy's appeal in large part because he is unknowable even for himself – the actor suggests anything that is empty and tired of this expert astronaut, gifted for his solitary work, but almost nothing else. Roy does not know if he really wants to find Clifford at the end of this trip, and many think he's dead, and Pitt skillfully articulates the mixture of anger, love and betrayal that runs through the character as he gets closer to these possible reunions. his father, who can perhaps fill an indecipherable void in him.

Collaborate with the director of photography Hoyte van Hoytema and the decorator Kevin Thompson and Allen Maris, visual effects supervisor, Gray creates a myriad of gorgeous widescreen images as Roy moves from Earth to the Moon, from Mars to Neptune, including two exceptional and unexpected action sequences that transmit masterly the terrors of this future world.

But Ad Astra largely resisted us with his vision of a more technologically advanced society. Instead, Gray focuses on the inner workings of space travel, anchoring events in realism. The strategy is wise, suggesting that Ad Astra is less interested in fantasy than in using the cold immensity of the universe as an allegory of the depth of Roy's spiritual isolation. And although it is Pitt's film, the minor actors, though little used, complete the dark and naturalistic tone – especially Jones, who symbolizes in a few lines the stoic figure of a distant father, giving Clifford an almost mythical grandeur. who paralyzed Roy all his life.