Using a quasi-documentary structure to dissect the aftermath of a voyage to Jupiter, this is sci-fi that, like 2009’s Moon, emphasizes space as a lonely, quiet, place. (The movie pays tribute to another inspiration, 2001, by briefly featuring Strauss’s The Blue Danube, prominently featured in that classic, as the crew boards the spaceship.) Taking its inspiration from recent evidence that Europa, one of the planet’s moons, has an icy surface with, possibly, water underneath, the film follows a four-man, two-woman crew as they travel there in the hope of finding evidence of life. The setting seems to be the current time, or close to it.
As the story begins, it is six months into the voyage, and the crew has lost its communication with earth. The idea is that the public had been following the voyage, but only now has information about what happened after that been declassified. A spokeswoman for the space agency on the ground narrates some of the story, told in flashbacks and flash-forwards that are generally not confusing. One of the crew tells other parts of the story. Is she the only survivor? What happens on Europa? I think you can probably guess, in broad strokes, if you assume that if the crew finds nothing, or all die immediately, there’s not much of a story. Still, this is an intelligent approach to sci-fi that seems fairly realistic.
Director Sebastián Corderouses split screens and typical subtitles to give the impression that we are looking at footage from video feeds, but he only does this for some of the movie. As for the actors, they’re fine. Most likely to be recognizable are Embeth Davidtz as the Earth-bound spokeswoman and Michael Nyqvist, star of the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but the characters are not the movie’s strong suit. The visuals are not flashy, but seem believable, and the score by Bear McCreary is effectively moody.
IMDb link
viewed 8/15/13 7:35 at Ritz Bourse and posted 8/15/13
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