The Midnight Sky is a science fiction film directed by George Clooney and written by Mark L. Smith, based on novel Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton. Taking place in the not-too-distant future, and a few weeks after something called “the event,” Augustine (George Clooney) is the last man on the planet, with everyone else having been evacuated or in the process of evacuating. Since he happens to have a terminal illness, he has no future out there, so he is left to manage an Arctic observatory base where he tries to contact a group of astronauts, hoping to stop them from returning to the mostly decimated planet.
However, it is soon revealed that Augustine is not as alone as he thought, since he soon bumps into a young stowaway (Caoilinn Springall) that has been living in the observatory with him from right under his nose, and seems to have no interest in engaging in conversation. Complications arise for both the folks on Earth and the crew in space. The antenna at their current observatory isn’t strong enough, forcing Augustine and Iris to make a trek over to a nearby station to make contact. Meanwhile, the crew is dealing with some troubles on their station, which is made worse when they have to take a potentially treacherous roundabout way to get back to Earth.
Mortality and how we come to terms with it, and find fulfillness beyond it is the big thread that goes through the film. Augustine wants to do something good before he dies, partially driven by the regrets he had with a woman he loved, which we see brief moments of in flashbacks where his younger version is played by Ethan Peck. Earth itself is becoming uninhabitable. In one moment, Augustine finds numerous frozen, dying bird, screeching on the ground. The space crew have come from a mission where they scouted a K-23, a planet that is perfect for human habitation.
The film keep a lot of details and specificity just out of grasp. We don’t get much of an explanation of what “the event” is beyond general implications regarding climate change. We don’t get a ton of information about the crew’s mission, what exactly is happening out in other parts of the world, and it ends on a sudden note that doesn’t provide concrete closure; exposition in general is for the most part kept to an absolute minimum. While that simplicity might make the film seem undercooked, I think it largely works in the film’s favor, giving it a dreamy quality that added to its emotional heft.
Another aspect that I’m sure will prove divisive is the film’s sentimentality, which is unabashed in every sense of the word. From the sometimes blunt, to-the-point, bordering on hokey dialogue to the lush and omnipresent score from Alexandre Desplat, it wears its emotions on its sleeve, and it doesn’t care if you think it becomes a bit much, especially with a reveal that happens in the final act of the film, which I’m sure many would predict. However, as predictable as that reveal may have been, there was a sense of inevitability to it.
The cast delivers strong work all around. Clooney is believably weathered, and has a strong dynamic with Springall, not that he would need to do much considering she doesn’t have to do a whole lot. The crew really shines, consisting of Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo,Tiffany Boone, Demián Bichir, and Kyle Chandler. With just a few small moments and beats, they establish a camaraderie that really works, feels lived-in, and while characterization can run thin on each individual person, you get a solid understanding of them as a whole with pieces of their background to flesh them out a bit more.
It might seem like I’m being quite forgiving on The Midnight Sky, and I wouldn’t necessarily disagree, but that isn’t to say I didn’t find myself frustrated at some of the film’s vagueness. However, as much as I might want to instinctively dissect its flawed mechanics and plot logistics, I found myself being more and more involved on an emotional level. I felt the isolation, I felt the hopelessness, and I felt the sense of impending doom that rattles under the surface for the entire picture, it’s the same one I am, and I’m sure many other people as well, are experiencing every day in the year of our Lord 2020. Despite it’s faults, it is so much more interesting and weirder than what I’d imagine a more tight and conventional take on this story would be. The Midnight Sky presents itself as an epic space spectacle about the end of the world, and while it does provide some beautiful spectacle, it’s a film that is so much more small, so much more human, and so much more driven by feeling than that. It’s a film about how we act when faced with the possibility of catastrophe. Do we surrender to it, or do we try to make the best of it, if not for ourselves, then at least for the ones we love? The film offers a surprisingly optimistic answer, one that could seem naive, but it’s one that I would certainly like to believe in.
The Midnight Sky will be available on Netflix on December 23rd.