The Midnight Sky (2020)

Directed by: George Clooney | 118 minutes | drama, fantasy, science fiction | Actors: George Clooney, Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo, Caoilinn Springall, Kyle Chandler, Demián Bichir, Tiffany Boone, Sophie Rundle, Ethan Peck, Tim Russ, Miriam Shor, Lilja Nótt Þórarinsdóttir, Hanna María Karlssonkartirjalars

The end of time. There are a lot of film makers who get away with that theme. And it won’t surprise anyone if the corona pandemic spawns a new series of apocalyptic drama and science fiction films. Just before the world came to a standstill because of the corona virus, George Clooney made ‘The Midnight Sky’ (2020), after the novel ‘Good Morning, Midnight’ by Lily Brooks-Dalton. Clooney not only directed the film, but also produced it and played Augustine Lofthouse, the grumpy scientist left alone on planet Earth after an unnamed catastrophe that would destroy our beautiful planet within thirty years. makes it completely uninhabitable. Augustine is seriously ill and does not expect to live much longer. In addition, he has devoted himself completely to his work all his life; unlike his colleagues at the Arctic Observatory, he has no family to turn to to spend his last days and wait for the end of time. So he is left alone. Or is he not all alone…?

As Augustine spends his days at the observatory drinking whiskey, dialyzing herself, swallowing a pill here and there and trying to contact any manned space expeditions to warn them not to return to Earth, the forgetfulness and paranoia. After rushing to put out a fire caused by his own negligence, he discovers a stowaway in the observatory: a young girl (Caoilinn Springall) who goes by the name Iris but doesn’t say a word. Although Augustine doesn’t want company at all, he slowly but surely grows fond of her presence.

He also makes a second important discovery: the manned spaceship Aether is so close that he has to make haste to make contact. He must warn them not to return to Earth, but to turn around and go to the habitable moon K-23 he discovered and build a life there. Unfortunately, the connection isn’t powerful enough, so Augustine and Iris must brave a snowstorm to get to the nearest base from which to contact the Aether. Aboard the spaceship, pregnant astronaut Sully (Felicity Jones), her partner Adewole (David Oyelewo) and their crew (Demián Bichir, Kyle Chandler and Tiffany Boone) have their own worries. Making contact with Earth is extremely difficult and when they also end up in asteroid showers that severely damage the radar and the communication system, it becomes a race against time.

There are so many science fiction dramas being made that it is difficult to distinguish yourself from the rest. Those who watch ‘The Midnight Sky’ will recognize enough aspects from all kinds of other (mostly recent) films from the genre, such as ‘Gravity’ (2013, also with George Clooney), ‘Interstellar’ (2014) and ‘Arrival’ (2016) . Compared to those visual gems ‘The Midnight Sky’ clearly falls short. This is not due to inferior special effects or mediocre camera work, because the film has some visual delights and Clooney, DoP Martin Ruhe and editor Stephen Mirrione show their creativity and inventiveness to the full.

No, it is mainly on the screenplay-technical level that ‘The Midnight Sky’ does not live up to expectations. With Mark L. Smith, the man behind the script of ‘The Revenant’ (2015), on board you can expect quite a bit, but the different storylines (besides the events surrounding Augustine at the North Pole and those surrounding Sully in the spaceship, (we also see flashbacks to Augustine’s early years so that we understand why he is so isolated) don’t really become one. The narrative pace is rather erratic and irregular and thematically the film ‘borrows’ ostentatiously from the aforementioned list of films. Also, seasoned movie viewers can see the big twist at the end coming from miles away, so that the surprise effect has already ebbed away before the story has even started. The fact that the supreme moment is then turned on with extra fat with cranking strings has the opposite effect.

‘The Midnight Sky’ was named in the top ten best films of 2020 by the US National Board of Review. Purely on the basis of the visual violence – the viewer is treated to both space and arctic spectacle – that award is deserved, but in terms of plot, Clooney and his associates probably only deserved this place because it was such a lean film year. Despite its shortcomings, ‘The Midnight Sky’ is quite entertaining, not only thanks to the camera work and special effects, but also thanks to the more than decent acting of the entire cast, George Clooney leading the way. The actor also deserves credit for having taken on such an ambitious project as this one.