Slingshot

Right after John (Casey Affleck), gathers his wits after coming out of hypersleep on a multi-year mission to Saturn’s moon, Titan, aboard Odyssey-1, the ship itself (voice of Nikolett Barabas) warning of confusion, nausea, dizziness and disorientation, he’ll be hit on the head by a panel that drops from the ceiling.  Engineer Nash (Tomer Capone, Amazon's 'The Boys') is convinced that inexplicable damage done to the hull while they were under will endanger them all if they complete their mission, but Captain Franks (Laurence Fishburne)    is determined to go ahead, using Jupiter’s gravity and the ship’s thrust rockets to “Slingshot.”

Laura's Review: C

There was a better movie earlier this year that this one parallels almost beat for beat - Johan Renck’s “Spaceman,” starring Adam Sandler.  Working from a script by R. Scott Adams ("Donner Pass") and "Moon's" Nathan Parker that throws one too many twists onto its ending, director Mikael Håfström ("Evil," "1408") concentrates on the ramifications of drugged isolation and flashbacks to John’s burgeoning relationship with the woman he left behind .  It is telling that my mind began to wander, noting the bare bones simplicity of Barry Chusid's production design and the irony that movies which take place a billion miles from Earth can be made on a low budget.

While we get used to the rhythms aboard Odyssey-1, which appear to be checking in on the state of the mission every three months before submitting to the increasingly detrimental effects of hypersleep, Håfström flashes back to the lead up to John being chosen for the mission.  He’ll be introduced to Zoe Morgan (Emily Beecham, "Little Joe"), the woman responsible for the design of the Odyssey, at a party, a fact that will become a point of contention later when Nash suggests the ship’s hull dent was caused by structural weakness.  She’ll find the seat next to him in a theater where astronauts, scientists and engineers watch a video about Titan too unsophisticated for this audience and obviously designed for exposition.  Another run-in in a cafeteria will allow for meet cute bonding over a video game and the next thing we know, John is staring dreamily into Zoe’s eyes beneath the sheets.  So it is a bit disconcerting when John begins to see and hear Zoe aboard the Odyssey.  And when Nash suggests they set their sleep chambers to open twelve hours earlier and slingshot back to Earth, a conversation overheard by Franks, what he sees later from inside his as he loses consciousness is even more worrying.

Affleck is fine as our unreliable narrator, looking and acting increasingly sleep-deprived the more time he spends in his chamber, but Sandler’s performance was more moving (and his costar, Paul Dano voicing a giant spider, far more interesting).  Capone convincingly unravels into paranoia while Fishburne remains so calm and speaks in such a monotone, we begin to wonder if he is human.  Beecham is a lovely love interest who nonetheless cannot get her lover to tell her he loves her.

But “Slingshot” is a movie designed to hoodwink that is so caught up in its devices, it decides to use them all, even when the logic of one negates the logic of another.  In the end, it merely cancels itself out.           

Robin's Review: C

The first manned mission to Saturn’s moon, Titan, is right on schedule, except they have no communication with the home base on Earth. Then – Bang! – something hits the ship’s hull. Mission commander, Frank (Laurence Fishburne), decides to continue on with the dangerous mission, which will snap the ship around Jupiter like a “Slingshot.”

So, that is the intent of the mission, but a wrench is thrown into the works with the rumble and bang. They discover a potential hull breach which John and the other crew member, Nash (Tomer Capone), think should abort the mission. Frank thinks otherwise – with the point of a gun.

Earlier this year, Adam Sandler starred in “Spaceman,” about an astronaut on a solo mission to the edge of our Solar System. That story dealt with loneliness, and isolation, of sorts, though, here, we are presented with a crew of three on board Odyssey-One.

The filmmakers, I think, deceive the audience with convenient sleight-of-hand tricks designed to distract the viewer from what I can only call sloppy filmmaking. Sets are designed to create an illusion, only to have that illusion thrown aside for sake of wrapping things up.

The story turns to a tale of isolation and realization that I do not want to give away. But, I did not believe what I saw unfold, which made the big reveal a no big deal. Essentially, I found the story and its execution just a big fake out, which should have been a huge surprise, but was not.

This should have been the actors’ movie, especially for Affleck in the central role. Unfortunately, the repeated sleight of hand action and fake outs takes the wind out of the characters and are pawns to the questionable science fiction.

Bleecker Street releases "Slingshot" in theaters on 8/30/24.