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"I've always wanted to be an astronaut, for the future of humanity and all," says Brad Pitt in James Gray's sci-fi movie. In the near future, at a time when "humanity looks at the stars", Ad Astra presents Pitt as Roy McBride, a space explorer who is unquestionably made up of the right material. Even in the most extreme situations, his pulse never exceeds 80.
McBride is miles above the Earth when we join him for the first time, climb the international antenna and make adjustments as if he was climbing a ladder on the first floor. Then, suddenly, a huge explosion makes him rock on Earth, a parachute happily slowing his fall in the first of several exciting sets imagined by Gray (The Lost City of Z) and the co-writer Ethan Gross, a long-time collaborator which goes back to the director's second film, The Yards.
As McBride said in the debriefing, the explosion occurred as part of a global surge caused by cosmic ray bursts from Neptune. But this is not apparently a coincidence. Twenty-nine years ago, a mission called Lima Project, led by Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), the father of our astronaut hero, had gone to the same planet on an exploratory trip in search of a new life. .
Described by Roy as a "pioneer", McBride Snr was the first man to reach Jupiter and Saturn, but he has not been heard for years and was presumed dead. Now the government is convinced that it is behind the surges. McBride Jnr's mission is to visit Mars, the last inhabited outpost in our solar system, where he can access a secure transmission facility to try to send a written message to his father.
On the moon
Initially, McBride must travel incognito on a commercial flight to the Moon. Colonel Tom Pruitt (Donald Sutherland) will join him in guiding him to a rocket bound for Mars. Curiously, their flight is operated by Virgin. It appears that Richard Branson's desire to travel in space has become a reality, even though McBride must pay $ 125 for a "package of blankets and pillows" to make his trip more comfortable .
When they go to the Moon – which has been grossly marketed, the t-shirt sellers and all – Pruitt and McBride are heading towards the Mars rocket. In buggies, they are pursued by unidentified pirates in a staggering sequence, which fully takes into account the physics of the gravity of the moon. McBride will visit the red planet, but beautifully visualized by Gray and his director of photography, Hoyte van Hoytema (Dunkirk).
Pitt's voice-over intervenes throughout his life, as he ponders his difficult relationship with his father, absent all his adult life, and his wife, Eve (Liv Tyler), who flickers in his memories . The current apocalypse is Apocalypse Now, with the "legend" of Tommy Lee Jones, the uncommon equivalent of Colonel Walter E Kurtz of Marlon Brando.
After a powerful reversal of Ruth Negga's mid-film as McBride's contact on Mars, which has her own interest in the Lima project, the emotional strings are deeply embedded in the final act, where Gray lays bare the old adage of the son suffering the sins of the father. Better yet, after his great work in Once Upon A Time … In Hollywood, Pitt is on a sensational form with the most mature and resonant performance of his career. Could it be time for his first Oscar actor?
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