Lucy in the Sky (2019)

First Hit: Lackluster and non-cohesive, the story had potential, but distractions and character jolts didn't work.

First off, when the actual picture on the screen kept changing the size, I thought, oh, we have a projection problem. Then I realized that the shifting from letterbox, to full screen, to square in the middle, square on each side of the screen, and wavy vertical edges was all part of the tricks Director Noah Hawley used to create the physical feeling of Astronaut Lucy Cola (Natalie Portman) was having because she felt disjointed and separate from world after having traveled in outer space.

This is based on a true story about how Lucy got caught up in the ethereal feeling of being back on earth after having floated out in space for two weeks. It's about how she struggled to get grounded after the experience and what happens when she loses focus.

The story shows her slipping in and out of states of quiet estrangement from the world around her. At one moment she's speaking with her husband Drew (Dan Stevens) in a usual kind of conversation and the next moment she's got this dreamy, faraway look in her eyes all the while the picture format of the film is changing, sometimes abruptly other times in a smooth wiping fashion. We learn about Lucy's background by Lucy's visits with her grandmother Nana (Ellen Burstyn). Nana is strict and expects Lucy to be tough, not like her flaky brother, who cannot sit still long enough to raise his daughter Blue Iris (Pearl Amanda Dickson).

Blue comes to stay with Drew and Lucy from time to time because it is the only stability and family she has. Her sadness and estrangement from her father are shown in one poignant scene when, after receiving a phone call from her dad, she goes into her room. She turns up the music loud and sits sulks on the floor. There are bits of scattered paper all round. Lucy goes in and reaches out to Blue and holds her, gives her space to try to put her life in perspective. The irony, of course, is that Lucy's life is out of control, and she doesn't know it, and she's consoling Blue, whose life is shattered.

Hoping to get back into space and have that sense of wonder and feeling all of life distantly, she begins working, studying, and training hard to be selected for the next mission. However, she's missing appointments with a NASA psychologist and starts acting on impulses that are generally foreign for her. One such impulse is to begin an affair with fellow astronaut Mark Goodwin (Jon Hamm). Another is bowling with a select group of others who've been in space as her. Together they are an elite club and talk around the edges of their inner experience of being in outer space.

Lucy is competitive and never loses, so when her fellow female astronaut Erin Eccles (Zazie Beetz) and who is competing with her for a seat on the next ride to space, sets a record for one of the tests, she's determined to beat it. However, there is a mishap, and this is when she obviously starts to spin out of control.

When she isn't selected to be part of the next team to space and is told to take some time off, she flips an internal switch and sets out to right all the wrongs she thinks are being done to her by NASA and Goodwin.

As I mentioned above, I thought the shift screen size projections were distracting and seemed like it was being used as a device to make us understand the character better. It doesn't happen in real life like this, so the technique only set me

Fmovies: Hawley really creates a fascinating portrait of Lucy as a character. She is someone who is driven by self determination and spurned by the words of a grandmother who never lets her get comfortable. There just isn't any failing in a single bone in her body. But she is given a life changing and mind altering experience and then put in a situation where her fate is taken out of her hands. It becomes a difficult situation for her to take and as she struggles with so much is just one of the things that causes her to spin out of control. But even within that Hawley is careful to always make sure that this is a thoughtful character study where you might not understand exactly what she is going through, but you can empathize with her since you are so attuned to her perspective. And Hawley gives you multiple points of view through the various characters were you can see her in many different lights. The difficulties that she puts people through as a husband who wants to love her but gets pushed away. A fellow astronaut who has gone through the same thing and can help us to understand what is happening to her. A niece who looks up to her and provides some perspective of her simply as a human being. There are many levels to the character. Like when she speaks a great deal of truth about the degrading idea of being an emotional woman, but while she is descending into madness and letting her emotion overcome her. Hawley allows her to be two things at once; a smart and capable woman who can do anything she sets her mind to and also being someone who is having an existential crisis so severe it is causing her to emotionally unravel. Natalie Portman is able to so believably inhibit the role of the high achieving character who you believe she can seemingly do anything. There is always that fire behind her eyes and you can constantly see the gears moving behind the eyes. But under all that there is someone who is becoming undone in ways that not even she can fully understand.

Hawley also works so well to create really wonderful singular moments which work so well and say so much. Like when upon being delivered some tragic news Lucy floats all the way from her home to a hospital room. It all plays out shot from the waist up and she traverses great distance as nothing more than herself. Everyone around her is frozen and not moving and space warps as we see flashes of her surroundings as nothing more than a blur. All the while there is a slowed down cover of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds that sounds much more spacey than the original. It is a wonderful moment of getting into the psyche of Lucy where nothing else around her seems to matter than getting to her objective. Hawley is so adept at creating a collage like that where he marries image, music and dialogue in a way that is visceral and feels alive. It transmits the emotional context of a scene quite perfectly. Although admittedly Hawley is probably too good at using that where his film can feel like more a combination of loosely connected scenes that doesn't quite connect to be a wholy cohesive entity. The emotional instability helps give an explanation to why that it happening, but especially when you back away from it after watching it is a bit undeniable that it works better as parts rather than a whole. Some of it may be Hawley's TV background where the episode structure forces an evolution to the story where he doesn't on a whole have to focus on story structure. It also allows him to have more freedom to experiment within the space of episodes knowing if one goes over a

"Lucy In the Sky" (2019 release; 124 min.) brings the story of Lucy. As the movie opens, Lucy is doing a space walk near the International Space Station, where the Shuttle has brought the astronauts. Lucy is overwhelmed by the experience. Upon returning to earth, we get to know her husband who also works at NASA. It becomes clear very quickly that Lucy is having a hard time readjusting to life on earth, her husband calling it suffering from "rocketlag".Meanwhile Lucy feels a special bond with Mark, who also has flown on the Space Shuttle... At this point we are 10 min. into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the first feature-length from debut director Noah Hawley, best known for his TV work including "Fargo". Here he brings a story to the screen that is "Inspired by real events", as we are informed at the beginning of the movie. Indeed, the story reminds of the real life story of astronaut Lisa Nowak, who did a space mission with the Shuttle in 2006 (can't tell you more as it would spoil your viewing experience). Let's be clear: "Lucy In the Sky" is NOT a space movie a la the recent "Ad Astra" or "Gravity" a few years ago. In fact, there are only a few scenes set in space, with a total screen time of about 5 minutes. The movie tells us what happens to Lucy AFTER she returns back to earth. In that sense, the movie's marketing campaign and trailer is completely misleading, I'm sorry to say. Natalie Portman as Lucy does the best that she can in what is a challenging script, certainly in the movie's first hour. If you wonder whether the movie contains the Beatles song "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds", it does (covered by Lisa Hannigan). I noticed in the end credits that Reece Witherspoon is one of the producers. One definitive positive is the movie's original score, an orchestral instrumental composed by Jeff Russo, and one I plan on checking out further.

"Lucy In the Sky" premiered to negative criticism at last month's Toronto International Film Festival, and has remained under clouds ever since. After opening in a few cities last weekend, the movie rolled out to more cities this weekend, and opened on 3 screens for all of Greater Cincinnati (population: 2.5 million). The Sunday early evening screening where I saw this at here in Cincinnati turned out to be a private screening, as I was literally the only person in the theater. In short: this movie has bombed completely at the box office, and I can't see it getting a much wider (or longer) theater run. I was aware of the negative reviews and criticisms going into the theater today, and hence my expectations were low, very low indeed. Hence I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't a complete disaster, and the 2 hours flew by pretty quickly. If you are interested in a flawed yet worthwhile character study (and then some), I'd suggest you check this out, be it in the theater (doubtful at this point), on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

Lucy in the Sky fmovies. The plot is just boring and doesn't go anywhere. Lucy's life and experiences aren't interesting, and I have no interest in the plot at all. I don't see the point of this film. What a huge waste of Natalie and Jon.

Lucy in the Sky is inspired by true events in the most artificial sense. Telling the story of an Astronaut dealing her own sanity. The film means well. It clearly has something to say, but I fails to give anything to us in a meaningful way.

Natalie Portman gives it her all, playing a character that is losing herself and has a lot of emotional baggage. She's terrific, but sadly the rest of the film is not. Lucy in the Sky is a miscalculated mess, with so many things in it and so little as well that it's hard to remain engaged.

The movie feels empty, emotionless and very dull. The only thing of visual interest are when then the aspect ratio of the film changes throughout the film. We go from 4:3 to 16:9 and more. The screen shrinks grows and it all seems based on how our character is feeling at the time. It's interesting, but proves to be a large distraction.

The film ultimately has nothing to really offer. There's no incite, no intrigue and it's ultimately empty. Natalie Portman does her best as do the rest of the cast, but it ends up just being a failed film with good ideas executed poorly.

I have to agree with most of the reviewers on here, this movie didn't deliver at all. I had high expectations, was hoping for a decent sci-fi movie but instead I got a quite boring drama. I wouldn't say the actors were bad, far from that, Natalie Portman and the rest did their job, but the story was just weak, certainly for the first half of the movie. The movie was also much too long, certainly for the story they wanted to tell. I wouldn't waste too much time on this one if I were you.