The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema & Tv
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
      • Shows
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureMovie reviews

The Space Between Us

The Space Between Us | Movie review
7 February 2017
Mark Mukasa
Avatar
Mark Mukasa
7 February 2017

Movie and show review

Mark Mukasa

The Space Between Us

★★★★★

Release date

10th February 2017

Certificate

UPG121518 title=

Links

TwitterFacebookWebsite

Director Peter Chelsom’s The Space Between Us is a young-adult film that, for once, is not based on a wildly successful teen novel. Conjured from an entirely original screenplay by Allan Loeb, Stewart Schill and Richard B Lewis, the movie tells the story of Gardner Elliot (Asa Butterfield), a boy born and raised on Mars for the entirety of his life. What with his existence being kept secret from the rest of humanity, Gardner is largely unsocialised. Although he’s only had direct interaction with NASA scientists, he manages to strike up an online friendship with Tulsa (Britt Robertson). Gardner is given the chance to go to Earth, and eventually joins Tulsa on a journey to experience the world for the first time.

As far as young-adult storylines go, this unique angle works for the first half of the film and Chelsom manages to develop a degree of charm and wonder. Gary Oldman plays Nathaniel Shepherd, an apparent allusion to real-life space aficionado Elon Musk. As always, Oldman is brilliant and he’s supported by the talented Carla Gugino as Kendra, a NASA scientist who acts as a surrogate mother to Gardner. Robertson and Butterfield perform their roles well, and with considerable restrain given the more saccharine elements of the plot. The dynamics between veterans Gugino and Oldman and the younger Butterfield and Robertson are also handled well, and there is good chemistry between the actors.

However, The Space Between Us eventually succumbs to ridiculous clichés and deus ex machina that utterly destroy the suspension of disbelief; it soon becomes just another highly predictable product of the genre. Serious narrative turns are decimated with laughably cringeworthy dialogue. Evidently, Butterfield and Robertson are highly capable actors, however, their character development is stunted as it is borrowed extensively from other coming-of-age films. This leads to Tulsa devolving into a cynical and insecure girl who needs to be loved, and Gardner’s social awkwardness and petulance are clearly plot-activated for convenience.

This lack of subtlety makes the third act unintentionally hilarious. Exposition becomes clunky and over-sentimental, dampening the emotional value of the movie. For the teenage audience this might be passable, however gratuitously the film ticks every outdated trope criteria. This is a shame, given the obvious talents of the cast and the unique premise. The Space Between Us begins with enormous charm, which ultimately fizzles out.

★★★★★

Mark Mukasa

The Space Between Us is released nationwide on 10th February 2017.

Watch the trailer for The Space Between Us here:

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

Related Itemsreview

More in Movie reviews

Coming 2 America

★★★★★
Musanna Ahmed
Read More

Eye of the Storm

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More

The Dissident

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More

Moxie

★★★★★
Emma Kiely
Read More

Notturno

★★★★★
Mersa Auda
Read More

The Winter Lake

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

Lucky

★★★★★
Jacob Kennedy
Read More

Justine

★★★★★
Abbie Grundy
Read More

Foster Boy

★★★★★
Jim Compton-Hall
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Mark Mukasa

The Space Between Us

★★★★★

Release date

10th February 2017

Certificate

UPG121518 title=

Links

TwitterFacebookWebsite

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • The Girl and the Spider (Das Mädchen und die Spinne)
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • Celebrate International Women’s Day with a Bombay Sapphire Cocktails & Create masterclass
    Food & Drinks
  • Kings of Leon – When You See Yourself
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Limbo
    ★★★★★
    Berlinale
  • Delectible drinks that would make the perfect Mother’s Day gift
    Food & Drinks
  • Killing Escobar
    ★★★★★
    Glasgow
  • “There really hasn’t been a film that deals with a platonic male-female relationship in this way”: Natalie Morales and Mark Duplass discuss Language Lessons
    Berlinale
  • A Brixton Tale
    ★★★★★
    Glasgow
  • Surge
    ★★★★★
    Glasgow
  • The Old Ways
    ★★★★★
    Glasgow
  • Berlinale 2021 winners: The full list
    Berlinale
  • WandaVision
    ★★★★★
    disney
  • Coming 2 America
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Kings of Leon – When You See Yourself
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • The Dissident
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

David Hockney at Tate Britain: A must-see 60-year retrospective | Exhibition review
Kieran Hodgson: Maestro at Soho Theatre | Theatre review