‘Ad Astra’ is a thoughtful stroll through space instead of the usual action-packed adventure

Posted on September 27, 2019

By MARK VIOLA

If there are movies I like more than coming-of-age stories, they are movies about space. Last year’s “First Man” was a great, if under-appreciated, film, while 2013’s “Gravity” is still one of my favorite movies since I started writing about them.

What both of those films have in common, despite one being based on actual events and the other completely fictional, is that their stories are less about space itself, which serves as both the setting and the catalyst for the events that unfold, and more about how it affects the people traveling there.

That is also the case for “Ad Astra,” which stars Brad Pitt (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”) and is directed and co-written by James Gray (“The Lost City of Z”).

The story is set in the near future and follows astronaut Roy McBride (Pitt), who is assigned a top-secret mission after a strange energy burst kills thousands across the planet. Roy is told by his superiors that they suspect the burst is related to the Lima Project, led by Roy’s father (Tommy Lee Jones, “Jason Bourne”), whose purpose was to head toward the edge of the solar system to search for extraterrestrial life. Roy’s father, and the entire crew, went missing 13 years into their mission, and have been presumed dead for more than a decade.

Up front, let me say that you should not go into “Ad Astra” expecting a lot of action and a fast-moving story. Although there are several “action” sequences, the vast majority of the film is more focused on Roy, specifically how the mission is affecting him after years of compartmentalizing his life and emotions. That is the true focus of this film, and it’s clear from the opening moments, when Roy is forced to take the first of many evaluations determining his mental state prior to beginning a mission.

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