“The Martian” directed by Ridley Scott

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Director:

Ridley Scott (“Alien”, “Thelma & Louise”, “Gladiator”)

Main Cast:

Matt Damon (“Good Will Hunting”, “True Grit”, The Bourne movies)

Jessica Chastain (“The Help”, “Zero Dark Thirty”, “Interstellar”)

Jeff Daniels (“Broadway Danny Rose”, “The Squid and the Whale”)

Chiwetel Ejiofor (“Dirty Pretty Things”, “Children of Men”, “12 Years a Slave”)

Running Time:   141 Minutes

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For the third year in a row, a major awards-contending feature film is about someone stranded off our planet.  For the second year in a row, Matt Damon is the strandee and co-stars with Jessica Chastain.  Despite similarities in genres, settings and themes, “The Martian” makes it easy for us to forget about those other films and focus on its own story.

Set in the not-too distant future, Mark Watney (Damon) is part of a six-member mission on Mars.  When a monster storm ascends quickly upon the group, their commander, Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain) makes the decision to abort the mission, leave the planet and return home.  While the crew is hastily preparing to lift off during the storm, they see Watney struck violently by a piece of equipment broken by the intense winds and leave him for dead.  Fortunately (he’s alive) and unfortunately (seemingly no one can do anything about it within a reasonable period of time), Watney gains consciousness.  He resourcefully and with unwavering determination solves crisis after crisis to heal himself from his wounds, assess his chances for survival, grow more food (he’s a botany PhD), and contact NASA to let them know he’s still alive.

The story follows the stressful day-to-day activities of Watney and also those of NASA, led by Director Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels) and Vincent Kapoor (Chiwetel Ejiofor).  The chances of Watney surviving and being rescued go from impossible to feasible to doable, but not without doubts and conflicts between technical guys and decision makers.  I felt like I was learning about aeronautics as we’re shown explanations of the different ways NASA and Watney’s crew think he can be rescued, all of which are done under the pressure of the rapidly-ticking calendar.  Despite the direness of his situation and as he deals with his nonstop series of life-threatening problems, Watney maintains a positive perspective and cynical sense of humor, which comes out in the video log he maintains, something he (at first) assumes will be found only after he dies.

Director Ridley Scott can be very hit-or-miss and I find myself reluctant to use the adjective “great” to describe him.   It may not be fair, but I attribute the success of his best films like “Alien”, “Blade Runner” and “Gladiator” more to his effects teams than his direction.  I like “Black Hawk Down” and “Thelma & Louise”, movies more about acting and story than special effects.  “Prometheus” looked good but the story was confusing, even after a third viewing.  In “The Martian”, both the storytelling (Andrew Goddard adapting Andrew Weir’s novel, which he originally published on his blog for free) and movie making are difficult to fault in any way.  The word that came to mind as I left the theater was “unhateable.”

All the acting is good, although I found Kristen Wiig’s (left, with Ejiofor and Daniels) presence as NASA’s director of media relations disorienting because I’m so used to her being funny.  I’m conditioned to laugh when I see her.  While I like seeing comic actors in dramatic roles, her presence seemed out of place here.  I said something similar about Steve Carell in David Frankel’s “Hope Springs.”  He went on to an Oscar-nominated performance in Bennett Miller’s “Foxcatcher.”  Michael Peña (below, with Chastain) , as crew member Rick Martinez, gets to trade sarcastic jabs with Damon’s Watney and their exchanges help the crew and the audience through otherwise tough scenes.  Chastain, Daniels, and Ejiofor are all typically engaging.  I found it curious Ejiofor’s character’s name wasn’t changed from Kapoor after he took the role over from original choice Irrfan Khan, since the name is very identifiable as ethnically Indian.  I mentioned in my review of Ang Lee’s “Life of Pi” how the two actors, who I like a lot, remind me of each other, so maybe keeping the name isn’t that questionable.

“The Martian” is technically tight and the visual effects are seamless, which is pretty much a given with big-budget films and the way effects artists are constantly looking for ways to impress audiences and move the technology forward.  The opening scene of the close-up of a rover’s tires on Mars’ red sand had me hooked immediately.  The reason the topography and ground surface (obviously augmented with CGI) looked so realistic is those portions of the film were shot in the red desert of Wadi Rum, Jordan.  The sound, sound effects editing, and Harry Gregson-Williams’ music score contribute as much as any aspect of the film and, as they should, effectively impact our interpretation of what we’re seeing.  The inclusion of disco-era music gives Watney an ongoing excuse to humorously criticize his commanding officer’s taste in music and it helps take the edge of the plot’s seriousness.  The film’s cinematography (Dariusz Wolski) and editing (Pietro Scalia, winner of Oscars for Oliver Stone’s “JFK” and Scott’s “Black Hawk Down”) should contend for Academy Awards.

While everything about the movie is extremely well done, the stars of “The Martian” are the dialogue given to Matt Damon and his delivery of it.  “Interstellar” tempered its similarly-intense storyline with humor in the form of TARS (voiced and partially mechanized by Bill Irwin) but not to the extent “The Martian” does with Watney.  It takes a stressful edge off the viewing experience without trivializing the severity of Watney’s (and NASA’s) predicament.  In terms of awards consideration, Damon may come across as too natural and too much like himself to be a contender.  That would be a shame considering how much he carries the film and how our reaction to what we see is dictated by the way Watney handles his difficult situations.  Even so, I was involved enough in the climactic rescue scene that I was afraid I was going to burst before I saw how it turned out.  That scene was especially well written and fleshed out.  Talk about nerve-racking.

“The Martian” is a well-crafted, entertaining and likeable movie that makes you feel like you’re learning about the physics of space travel as you follow the intense story line and, assuming you appreciate a cynical sense of humor, makes you laugh along the way.  It’s a relief to see such a powerful story presented in a manner that’s riveting yet doesn’t put you in danger of suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

DPW

October 21, 2015

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