The actor-director’s filmography has taken an interest in end-of-the-world scenarios – including producing and starring in a remake of “Fail Safe” for CBS – and he’s back here in that realm. Set in 2049 and starting three weeks after an unspecified “event” that will spell the downfall of humanity, Clooney’s Augustine – located on an Arctic outpost – is still alive, but how long no one knows.
Still, Augustine has one more task to accomplish: to warn a spaceship with a diverse crew of astronauts of return to a dying planet, but rather they hope to distract them, after a deep space mission that might have offered hope of a habitable planet on which to put their seek refuge.
Adapted from Lily Brooks-Dalton’s book “Good Morning, Midnight” by writer Mark L. Smith (“The Revenant”), the film moves between the astronauts and Augustine as he elaborates on details about his character through a series of flashbacks .
The premise is bleak, and the sledding (literally, when Augustine realizes he must reach another location to contact them) is difficult. There are also formidable challenges for the explorers, with a crew of Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo, Kyle Chandler, Demián Bichir and Tiffany Boone.
Aside from a pretty dramatic space action sequence, “The Midnight Sky” moves on somewhat listlessly, especially during the terrestrial sequences with Clooney and the young girl (Caoilinn Springall) who becomes his companion. (Tom Hanks also plays opposite a kid on “News of the World,” so there must be something in the water.)
Perhaps the film will inevitably bear a resemblance to other recent space fares, including a movie starring Clooney in “Gravity” and Christopher Nolan’s cerebral “Interstellar”. The main difference is a predominant sense of hopelessness that counteracts the drama.
Clooney identified early on with ‘Good Night, and Good Luck’ that he was a serious filmmaker as opposed to a dabbling movie star, and has taken risks with projects of questionable commercial viability, such as the eccentric ‘Suburbicon’ and “The Monuments Men. . “
“The Midnight Sky” is spared any push to lighten the box office sky on Netflix, and that’s a good thing. Because while Clooney has delivered a sobering and thoughtful film, the story dramatically spoken – a bit like Clooney’s taciturn scientist – feels locked in a homemade prison.
“The Midnight Sky” premieres on Netflix on December 23.