Year: 2018

Film Review: THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB (USA 2018) **

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The Girl in the Spider's Web: A New Dragon Tattoo Story Poster
Young computer hacker Lisbeth Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist find themselves caught in a web of spies, cybercriminals and corrupt government officials.

Director:

Fede Alvarez

Writers:

Jay Basu (screenplay by), Fede Alvarez (screenplay by) |3 more credits »

Stars:

Claire Foy, Sylvia Hoeks, Lakeith Stanfield

After a hiatus so long that audiences have likely forgotten the story of men-hating bi-sexual heroine Lisbeth Salander, THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB appears with all the Hollywood aplomb.  But one should be aware, at least briefly of the history of Lisbeth Salander.

Lisbeth Salander is the Swede heroine of the trilogy of Millennium’ books (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire and The Girl in the Hornet’s Nest) all made into Swedish films with only the first remade by David Fincher into an English Hollywood version.  But the author Steig Larsson has passed away (Dragon Tattoo was published posthumously) and the new book which this film is based on is penned by a new author, Larsson’s successor, David Lagercrantz.

Computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Claire Foy) and journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Sverrir Gudnason) find themselves caught in a web of spies, cyber criminals and corrupt government officials.  The rough story involves her hacking computers trying get code belonging to Frans Balder (Stephen Merchant) while her code is stolen.  At the same time, Edwin Neeham (LaKeith Stanfield), a National Security Agency (NSA) security expert is tracking Salander.  Things get complicated with Camilla Salander (Sylvia Hoeks), Lisbeth’s estranged sister, who is the head of a major crime syndicate.

The best of all the films is the original Swede version of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO that shocked with its violence and theme where the audience really felt Lisbeth’s trauma, being raped and abused by several men before merging a female vigilante killer.

Uruguay director Nede Alvarez’s (DON’T BREATHE) version shows Lisbeth instead as a female James Bond.   Her job is to save the world just as is the job of Bond in all the Bond movies.  He is less interested in Lisbeth’s drama but more in the film’s action set-pieces that involve countless car chases and explosions. 

Alvarez does not bother about continuity either. In one action scene, Salander fires on a car driven by a kidnapper and the autistic son.  The car is stranded on a bridge and Salander gets the boy out of the car.  Where is the man at this point in time?  He appears two minutes later firing bullets rapidly at them from a machine gun.  The suspended bridge is then lifted.

Not much sense can be made of the technology or gimmicks either.  When the logic of the password is revealed – some spill about prime numbers – the dialogue is so fast as if to prevent the audience from catching on that all this makes no sense.  Anyone can get killed and with Salander almost invincible, the film generates no suspense.  Even the sex scenes, between Salander and her female lover creates no surprise, the audience already aware of her bi-sexuality.

The film is set mainly in Sweden with all the actors speaking with an English or with a Swedish accent.  There is an American character, a black tech expert who has to turn out to be a good guy.

All the originality of the Lisbeth Salandar’s previous films is gone.  What is left is a slick and sloppy thriller, with too many scenes not making much sense.  Don’t get tangled up with this one!   

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKMSP9OKspQ

Film Review: TRANSIT (Germany 2018)

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Transit Poster
When a man flees France after the Nazi invasion, he assumes the identity of a dead author whose papers he possesses. Stuck in Marseilles, he meets a young woman desperate to find her missing husband – the very man he’s impersonating.

Director:

Christian Petzold

Writers:

Christian Petzold (adaptation), Anna Seghers (novel)

Stars:

Franz Rogowski, Paula Beer, Godehard Giese

Man in TRANSIT.  Adapted from Anna Seghers’ WWII-set novel, TRANSIT transposes the plot to an indistinct era that resembles the present-day. 

I am not a fan of transposed plots or of adaptations of literary classics to a different place or time.  Writer/directors can aim at making their films accessible or more difficult.  It seems the latter case for German director Christian Petzold’s (PHOENIX, which I admired) TRANSIT.  To set his WWWII film to the present, he could have made that decision for an easier way out at fillming.  For one, he has no vintage cars or expensive sets or war uniforms to worry about.  But critics will always find an excuse to favour a script or an idea made more difficult to follow.  TRANSIT has therefore, unsurprisingly garnered favourable reviews.

Georg (Franz Rogowski) is a German refugee who escapes to Marseille in France, a port for migrants fleeing an unspecified war.  Georg carries the documents of a famous writer, Weidl: a manuscript, the promise of an elusive transit pass from the Mexican embassy, and letters from the writer’s wife, Marie (Paula Beer).  Discovering that Weidl has taken his own life, Georg assumes the author’s identity, grows ambivalent about leaving the continent, and develops an obsessive desire for the mysterious Marie — herself stranded in the city.  The film is made more confusing with Marie having an affair with another lover, a doctor when Georg arrives.  Georg also meets a young kid and his deaf/mute mother.

It is clear that the film bears shades of the classic CASABLANCA where refugees are waiting for an opportunity to escape the Nazis and enter a better way of life through passage to another country.  But this thrill and suspense are lessened when the war environment becomes foggy as the setting is not really WWII.

Actor Rogowski has an uncanny resemblance to Joaquin Phoenix.  He even sports a hairlip like Phoenix.  His brooding performance, always at a loss of what to do next, even after falling in love with Marie helps propel this difficult along.  He is the one good thing about this otherwise tedious film that leads nowhere, like always being lost as in the characters in constant transit.

An art-house piece, TRANSIT requires a lot of work to appreciate.  Many will just not be bothered with it.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOTZiS2erb4

Film Review: THE FAVOURITE (UK/USA 2018) ****

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The Favourite Poster
Trailer

In early 18th century England, a frail Queen Anne (Colman) occupies the throne and her close friend Lady Sarah (Weisz) governs the country in her stead. When a new servant Abigail (Stone) arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah.

Director:

Yorgos Lanthimos

Writers:

Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara

Stars:

Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz

Lanthimos’s latest film after DOGTOOTH, THE LOBSTER and THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER is his most extravagant, with a period setting in a castle with royalty as its subject.

It is the early 18th century when England is at war with the French though the film opens oddly enough with royalty involved with duck racing and pineapple eating.  The poor are taxed and the poor go to war.   A frail Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) occupies the throne and her close friend Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) governs the country in her stead while tending to Anne’s ill health, temper and sexual desires .   When a new servant Abigail (Emma Stone) arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah.  Sarah takes Abigail under her wing and Abigail sees a chance at a return to her aristocratic roots.   Abigail schemes to fill in as the Queen’s companion. Their burgeoning friendship gives her a chance to fulfil her ambitions and she will not let woman, man, politics or rabbit stand in her way.

THE FAVOURITE stands as a film that those familiar with Lanthimos will find quite similar to his last movie THE KILLNG OF A SACRED DEER.  As in both films, the status quo of a family is challenged (Farrell’s in DEER and Queen Anne’s in FAVOURITE).  Both sees the arrival of a stranger who is revealed to have closer connections with the family that will shake formalities and turn the family upside down for better or for worse.  Though Lanthimos’s favourite actor Colin Farrell is not in this film, one can see him inhabiting a similar character now taken on by Nicholas Hoult.  THE FAVOURITE also contains Lanthimos’s odd pounding soundtrack and his fade outs to black.  

Lanthimos sees that the audience takes the side of Emma Stone from the very start when she falls flat with her face onto the mud on arrival at the castle.  She can do no wrong, compared to Lady Sarah that the script by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara ensures the audience dislikes from start to finish.

Both films contain odd dialogue that are funny because they can occur at the least likely moment.  THE FAVOURITE’s best line is when Queen Anne rebutting Lady Sarah when asked to dismiss Abigail: “I will not, I enjoy having her tongue inside me.”  Those unfamiliar with Lanthimos previous films (and better still if the trailer is not seen beforehand) will likely find THE FAVOURITE more amusing, shocking and refreshing while those who are will find him doing the same tricks in a different setting.  All the main actors  Weisz, Stone and Colman have been in Lanthimos past films.  Surprises  are no more surprises if they are expected to occur.  One can say the same for a Lanthimos film – to expect surprise after surprise.  It would be a surprise if his films did not shock or surprise. Still. Lanthimos’s The FAVOURITE succeeds well in its ambitions.  But the dialogue (in literally the Queen’s English) – except one would imagine the words ‘cunt’ and ‘fuck’ were not used in those times – is sped up several notches compared to the slow dialogue in Lanthimos’s other entries.

THE FAVOURITE arrives after the Venice International Film Festival with favourable reviews.

Trailer:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYb-wkehT1g

Film Review: WIDOWS (USA 2018) ***1/2

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Widows Poster
Trailer

Set in contemporary Chicago, amidst a time of turmoil, four women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands’ criminal activities, take fate into their own hands, and conspire to forge a future on their own terms.

Director:

Steve McQueen

Writers:

Gillian Flynn (screenplay by), Steve McQueen (screenplay by) | 1 more credit »

Stars:

Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki

Drama heavyweight director of critical hits like HUNGER and 12 YEARS A SLAVE attempts an action packed pyro-technics thriller WIDOWS with quite an impressive cast of heavyweights headed by Viola Davis.

WIDOWS is that rare action movie centring on women proving that they too can carry an action film.  The script is by GONE GIRL author Gillian Flynn.

Veronica (Davis) lives an idyllic life in Chicago, ensconced in the loving arms of her husband, Rawlins (Liam Neeson), and in their luxurious condo.  But Rawlins bought that cushy life robbing people, unknown to Veronica, a teacher in the Chicago education system.  (There is no scene of Veronica at her work.)   When a job with his gang goes fatally wrong, Veronica’s life falls to pieces.  With a local crime lord (Brian Tyree Henry) and his muscle (Daniel Kaluuya) pressing her to pay Rawlins’s $2 million debt,  Veronica realizes her late husband’s shady business sees only one option: round up the three other women who had slept for years next to these seasoned criminals, and make a plan left by her husband to win their lives back.  There is also a side plot involving the crime lord running for office against another crooked white politician Tom Mulligan (Colin Farrell).  

The film’s most interesting character is Tom Mulligan.  Tom exerts a power both within and beyond the law, pushed by his father (Robert Duvall).  Tom appears to be a worthy candidate but deep inside, he is fed up of the father’s dynasty in Chicago and wants out.  It is not surprising that the film is at its most interesting when McQueen deals with the drama rather than the action as in the film’s best scene – the confrontation between Farrell and Duvall.

To make the heist film more personal, the film interweaves the lives and hence, problems of the 4 widows that undertake the heist.  Each have their own burdens.  The other three are played by Michelle Rodriguez, Cynthia Erivo, and Elizabeth Debicki all of whom shine in their roles.

McQueen has achieved the rare feat of being able to elicit unforgettable performances – not from a  few but from his entire cast.  The best two performances belong to Farrell who is aided by the most intriguing written character and GET OUT’s immediately recognizable Daniel Kaluuya who demonstrates how smooth violence can be executed.

As this is McQueen’s first action flick, one can see him trying too hard at times.  The romantic scenes are a bit too livid for comfort, all the kissing scenes involving the tongue.  This results in the kissing scene (mixed race) between Viola Davis and Liam Neeson that would make quite a few quite uncomfortable.  Credit for trying.

As a thriller, WIDOWS contains quite a few plot twists.  Well written and inserted into the storyline, they serve to enrich the drama rather than just being there for the sole purpose of surprise, a tactic that seems now too common in most Hollywood thrillers.

WIDOWS premiered successfully at the Toronto International Film Festival to general favourable reviews.  WIDOWS should not only please McQueen’s fan base but extend his career into the Hollywood mainstream.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN2yBBSRC78

Reel Asian Film Festival 2018 Review: TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY (Hong Kong 2017) ****

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Tomorrow Is Another Day Poster
Mrs. Wong knows her husband is carrying on an affair, but for the sake of their marriage and autistic son, she has chosen to silently endure. However, the mistress comes to disturb them, …See full summary »

Director:

Tai-lee Chan

Writers:

Tai-lee Chan (screenwriter), Nicholl Tang (screenplay consultant)

Stars:

Teresa Mo, Ray Lui, Man-Lung Ling

Don’t let the ordinary sounding title fool you.  This one is the best of the films I have previewed at Reel Asian 2018.  Mrs. Wong (Teresa Mo) knows her husband, a driving instructor (Ray Lui) is having an affair, but for the sake of their marriage and their autistic son (Ling Man Lung), she chooses to silently endure his infidelity for the time being. What follows is an extremely realistic, heartfelt drama of a working-class woman struggling to breakthrough her midlife crisis. 

 One cannot help but feel for the central character, Mrs. Wong.  Director Chan lets us into the reason she persists.  Two reasons, one which is her son who occasionally shows how loving he is  The other is that she has little other alternatives.  TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY and there is nothing one can do about it.  At the film’s mid-point, the film turns into a suspense thriller as Mrs. Wong decides to stab the husband’s mistress to death.  Besides  the compulsive storyline, Chan’s camera also shows the beauty of Hong Kong as a city as well as the terrible gossip that exists in every neighbourhood in such a closed community as Hong Kong.  

Teresa Mo and Ling Man Lung both win acting honours at the Hong Kong Film Awards.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FF-BiUHpUc

Film Review: DOLPHIN MAN (L’HOMME DAUPHIN)

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Dolphin Man Poster
Trailer

Dolphin Man draws us into the world of Jacques Mayol, capturing his compelling journey and immersing viewers into the sensory and transformative experience of free-diving. From the …See full summary »

Director:

Lefteris Charitos

Writers:

Yuri Averov, Lefteris Charitos

Stars:

Jacques Mayol, Jean-Marc Barr, Umberto Pelizzari

The title DOLPHIN MAN belongs to the legendary free-diver Jacques Mayol whose life became the inspiration for Luc Besson’s cult-movie THE BIG BLUE (LE GRAND BLEU) .  The bio doc is narrated by Jean-Marc Barr who played Mayol in THE BIG BLUE.

Free diving is as the name implies, diving deep into the ocean without any breathing aid. Lungs get compressed and without oxygen, if the diver faints, he or she will be unable to re-surface which implies certain death.  Mayol is world famous as a free diver having broken his own records of depth free diving many times.

Mayol achieved fame in 1976 when he became the first free diver ever to descend 100 metres.  This legend of the sport spent his life setting records and going beyond what was considered humanly possible.

Charitos’s bio plays safe and covers all aspects of the diver’s life from his childhood, to his philosophy (of being one with the ocean), to his lifestyle and finally to the legacy he leaves behind.

His childhood is narrated with archive footage of China.  Mayol was born and lived as a child in Shanghai as his father was a French architect there.  Mayol loved the sea and when he was old enough took off to travel the world.  He married and settled in California with a Dane.  They broke up.  Before attaining fame, Mayol worked all kinds of jobs including the chauffeur of Zsa Zsa Gabor.  (Wish there were shots of him and Zsa Zsa together.)  But always broke, he used to stay at friends’s places for free.

The title Dolphin Man comes from Mayol’s fascination of the mammal.  He was nicknamed the French Dolphin by the Japanese.  He preferred a world of dolphins without humans.  In a way, Mayol has led his life similar to the dolphin’s.  The film reveals Marol’s first sight of the creature while on a ship as a child.

The bio finally rests on the diving.  Mayol is shown in many segments, diving into the waters for various purposes – treasure hunting; lobster fishing or breaking new records.

The film includes interviews with friends, family and free-diving champs like William Trubridge and Mehgan Heaney-Grier, and the vast beauty of the ocean is explored through fascinating archival footage and breathtaking present-day underwater cinematography.

Chartos’s film diverts a bit to the subject of breathing, as breathing is an important element in free diving.  His camera takes the audience to India to meet Yoga Masters that tag the wart of breathing or non-breathing.  The film also diverts to other free divers who are also champions in the field.

Every subject in a doc would have a downturn in his or her life.  For Mayol, one downturn was the death of his true love Gerda.  Gerda was the love of his life, loving the same things he loved like animals, eating the same food and sharing the simple pleasures of his life.  Gerda died in his arms – though the reason is not given in the film.  Mayol, described as a lolly man by nature, goes into deep depression as a result.  Another time was when he was shooting a film when he descended the deep too quickly bursting an ear drum.  The footage shows Mayol much older and obviously not the young athlete he was.  Again, Mayol went into depression.

Director Chartos uses Mayol’s depression to lead the film towards its sad conclusion that nevertheless provides the audience with some valuable insight on life – distinguishing DOLPHIN MAN from the run-of-the-mill bio documentary.

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/237685725

ReelAsian Film Festival 2018 Review: DEAR EX (Taiwan 2018) ***

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Dear Ex Poster
When Sanlian’s ex-husband passes away, she discovers he has altered his insurance policy, cutting out their son in favor of a stranger named Jay. Outraged, Sanlian decides that she and her …See full summary »

Directors:

Chih-Yen Hsu (as Kidding Hsu), Mag Hsu

Writers:

Mag Hsu (screenplay), Shih-yuan Lu (screenplay)

Stars:

Roy Chiu, Ying-Xuan Hsieh, Joseph Huang

This gay positive Taiwanese entry arrives timely at ReelAsian just in advance of same-sex marriage becoming legal in Taiwan in May of 2019.  Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-Liang has championed the gay art house movie with films like VIVE L’AMOUR but DEAR EX is yet another worthwhile entry, looking at the gay lifestyle from a lighter though still quite serious view.

  The film follows three people who are linked by fate because of love and family. Adolescent Song Chengxi (Joseph Huang) loses his father Song Zhengyuan (Spark Chen) to cancer, but instead of having time to mourn, Chengxi finds himself caught in a feud between his widowed mother Liu Sanlian (Hsieh Ying-xuan) and his father’s gay lover Jay (Roy Chiu). 

 As Liu fights Jay for Song’s insurance money,  though it is never clear what had happened to the money.  Each of three subjects are super-hyper and when they get together, there is now hostage of shouting and fighting, driving not only the other crazy but the person him or herself.  

It is comical to see the three interact and what is the final outcome of the film.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r94pd519Jf4

ReelAsian 2018 Review: HOUSE OF THE RISING SONS (Hong Kong 2018)

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Hing daai baan Poster
The musical biography of the 1970s Hong Kong rock band The Wynners. Starting with their humble beginnings as band causing noise in the neighborhood, through to their career of massive stars throughout Asia.

Director:

Anthony Chan

Stars:

Carlos Chan, Jonathan Wong, Simon Yam

Who else best to make a movie of the band The Wynners, a Hong Kong pop sensation of the 70’s than a member of the band himself?  Anthony Chan started the chart-topping pop band The Wynners, the band inspired by The Beatles’ visit to Hong Kong. 

 The film traces the band’s formation.   Despite opposition from their parents, five young men form a neighbourhood band called The Loosers to play music and rebel against the staid conformity of their traditional upbringing.  

As they began to pursue their dreams, they find that the journey to stardom is never easy.  Armed with grit, perseverance and raw talent, the band weathers the strain brought on by creative conflicts, personnel shake-ups and their rapidly growing popularity to become The Wynners and establish themselves as true musical legends.  The cliche-ridden film is a breezy easy-going comedy that is often all over the place.   This is no BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, but a teen flick where teens can do anything while the elders are the ones who always look silly and do everything wrong.   

Though touted as a bio of the band, the film feels less so.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3HQSJcLAMU

Reel Asian Film Festival 2018 Review: WISH YOU WERE HERE (China/Japan 2018)

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China, Japan 2018 Rated PG 113:00 Mandarin, Japanese with English subtitles North  

“What’s kept hidden has its own power on us.”

On the eve of her latest fashion showcase in Beijing, successful entrepreneur Yuan Yuan is approached by Keiko, a mysterious young Japanese woman. An admirer of Yuan Yuan’s career, Keiko has learned Mandarin and fashion design for a chance to speak with her idol. As Yuan Yuan takes Keiko under her wing, long suppressed memories begin to surface of her time in Hokkaido and the husband she’d left behind.

Yuan Yuan finally builds up the courage to visit the small town she left behind more than 20 years ago in order to confront her past decisions and face her deepest fears. A journey of forgiveness and reconciliation, Wish You Were Here marks Kenneth Bi’s return to Reel Asian. His latest feature, a co-production between China and Japan, is an examination of a woman traversing through modernity and tradition; youth and maturity; past and future. -KE

Credits

Faye Yu, Takao Osawa, Ayane Kinoshita, Lu Yangyang, Goki Maeda, Yuriko Hoshi, Shingo Tsurumi, Zhou Tie, Liu Dan, Ma Yinyin

 

Directed by Kenneth Bi

Kenneth Bi’s third film follows the tone of his early films THE DRUMMER an RICE RHAPSODY – slow and pensive.  I am not really a fan of Bi as his films require a bit of patience to reap their rewards. 

 On the eve of her latest fashion showcase in Beijing, successful entrepreneur Yuan Yuan is approached by Keiko, a mysterious young Japanese woman.  An admirer of Yuan Yuan’s career, Keiko has learned Mandarin and fashion design for a chance to speak with her idol.  As Yuan Yuan takes Keiko under her wing, long suppressed memories begin to surface of her time in Hokkaido and the husband she’d left behind. 

 Yuan Yuan finally builds up the courage to visit the small town she left behind more than 20 years ago in order to confront her past decisions and face her deepest fears.  A journey of forgiveness and reconciliation, his latest film is an examination of a woman traversing through modernity and tradition; youth and maturity; past and future. 

 The closing night film.

Film Review: CLARA (Canada 2017) ***

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Clara Poster
An obsessive astronomer and a curious artist form an unlikely bond which leads them to a profound, scientific discovery.

Director:

Akash Sherman

Writers:

Akash Sherman, Akash Sherman (story by) |1 more credit »

Stars:

Patrick J. Adams, Troian Bellisario, Will Bowes

CLARA is a rare science fiction romantic drama made in Canada’s own Toronto that disguises the fact quite well, passing of as an American film in an unnamed city and in unnamed university.  Lots of references to NASA gives the impression that CLARA is an American made movie.

The film opens with Dr. Isaac Bruno (Patrick J. Adams) delivering a lecture on astronomy to an auditorium full of eager students.  He is quizzed by one who challenges his disinterest in the field.  It is here that Isaac draws a parallel between finding true love (L=0), which equates to a zero to finding life in the other parts of the universe.  

In the next scene, Isaac is fired from the Faculty by the dean (Jennifer Dale) for – it all sounds really funny – “misappropriating telescope time’.   Obsessed with his work, he decides to conduct studies on data on his own and seeks the help of an outsider who turns up to be his romantic interest. Clara (Troian Bellisario) is a sort-of free-spirit who shares Isaac’s fascination of the wonders of the universe.  Their unlikely collaboration leads to a deep connection and a profound astronomical discovery as they detect patterns in stellar data.  She also opens Isaac up to the outside of space research and data.

CLARA contains spots of uplifting moments.  One cannot go wrong with the music of Bob Dylan as Clara picks one Dylan’s vinyls and plays it.  The lyrics: “She once was a true love of mine” also tells the story of Isaac.

The script, also written by director Akash Sherman often falls into cliched territory.  Like the line spoken by Clara; “Do you want something more than all this, for the universe to surprise us?”  Clara and Isaac then kiss for the very first time.  The script also plunges the audience into the here and now of its two characters.  But nothing is known of the two characters’s past backgrounds.  

At one point, the free spirited Clara appears to be a character just out to change the life of another subject and then move on to another.  This premise made a very interesting movie in the 70’s called SWEET NOVEMBER in which Sandy Dennis picked a character every month to change a life for the better.  November was played by Anthony Newley who falls in love with her but she moves on.  CLARA sort of follows this story as Clara thus moves on while Isaac gets on with an improved life.

CLARA has an ending (unfortunately unable to be revealed here as it would be a massive spoiler) that badly undermines whatever message the film intended to portray, thus betraying the entire movie. 

CLARA is a sad film about two lonely people who eventually find each other, only to find that fate is not on their side, despite the good connection.  It is a sad premise lifted by the story’s setting in the wonders of space.  The resulting film is, as expected, a mixed bag of tricks, with some good moments as well.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eIbm4cfA8M