"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.
