There is something quite Zen about "Midnight Sky," the new film starring and directed by George Clooney set to release worldwide on the streaming service giant Netflix. There’s a certain calmness to it, an intentionally unhurried feel about the movie as a whole.
On the surface that doesn’t seem to mesh well with the plot point that humanity has just entered what seems to be its last days, but as you go along and watch the film, slowly, the connective tissue begins to emerge, and the reasoning for it becomes sharply apparent.
One side of the film is the story of Augustine, an aging genius of a scientist who chooses to remain behind in an installation in the arctic circle when the rest of humanity chooses to flee from a global catastrophe. His sole remaining task is to warn the Aether, a spaceship mankind had sent on an exploratory mission to one of Jupiter’s moons, not to return to Earth.
Having been a loner all his life he welcomes the solitude, the time to be alone with his thoughts.
What he doesn’t expect or want, is company. And that company comes in the form of a young girl played by newcomer Caoilinn Springall, who was only seven years old at the time of shooting.
In flashbacks a younger Augustine is played by Gregory Peck’s grandson, Ethan Peck, who is best known for playing a bearded Spock in Star Trek: Discovery. He was Clooney’s top choice for the role, and pulled off the more youthful George Clooney effortlessly.
The other half of the movie is the story of the crew of the Aether. Sully, played by Felicity Jones of Rogue One fame, and her fellow astronauts have been away for two years, and are eager to return home to their friends and families. Now so close to Earth, they suddenly loose contact with anyone and everyone, not a very comforting predicament for all concerned.
It may be slow at times, but the film is far from aimless.
There are some action set pieces that interrupt the introspection and remind you that the arctic and outer space are inherently harsh environments.
But the measured pace is intentional, as the director himself calls it less of an action film but a meditation. “It’s much more of a meditation, you know?” Clooney explains.“It’s a meditation on life. It’s a meditation on what we’re capable of doing to one another if we’re not careful.”
There is much to meditate on in the film, as themes of family and redemption run right through the fabric of the film.
However given the social global climate caused by the pandemic, the themes of loneliness and connection are unfortunately the ones all the more poignant and relevant. There is much the film says about isolation and its many forms, from Augustine’s own self-imposed isolation and the Aether’s crew having to live with each other, together, and yet collectively alone from everyone else.
The catastrophe, the cataclysmic event that threatens all life on Earth is left intentionally vague. Even though its what started everything, in the end it doesn’t really matter.By the end of the film the details and what-have you become irrelevant, and this is part of that meditative nature of the film, guiding us, the audience to set aside what’s not important, and to focus on what is.
You can ruminate on "Midnight Sky" on Netflix starting on December 23, 2020.