Watched in the cinema

The first feature film by Noah Hawley, the creator of "Fargo" and "Legion", two of the TV shows in recent years I enjoyed the most. It can only be good, really. And then at the top of the cast list is one of my favourite actresses Natalie Portman and other great names like Dan Stevens, Jon Hamm, Ellen Burstyn and Zazie Beetz. No, this movie has to be good. There's no other way. There is no alternative to "Lucy in the Sky" just being a really brilliant movie. This is what I thought when the first trailer for "Lucy in the Sky" was released last spring. Now, more than a year later, I have to point out that Hawley's debut is not a thoroughly horrible movie, but also doesn't come close to living up to my high expectations.

Hawley, who also co-wrote the script, was inspired to make the film by the story of Lisa Nowak. Lisa Nowak was in space as an astronaut with NASA in the summer of 2006 and probably got psychological problems after her return, because she suddenly felt that life on earth was so small and insignificant, which in the end almost ended in a massive act of violence. Natalie Portman's character is now going through the same thing. Right at the beginning we see her floating through space. The size, beauty, emptiness of the universe is captured in a formidable way. But as soon as Lucy is back on board the spaceship, none of these impressions seem to stick to her, except the emptiness.

This could form a multi-layered character-drama, but even though "Lucy in the Sky" always depicts revelling moments of melancholy and isolation, they fizzle out because of the stark contrast. Apart from the money shots the movie is also quite grumpy in its presentation. Moreover, the visually strong scenes don't really expand Lucy's horizons. That she feels lost and uncomfortable on earth is already clear after the first ten minutes. So it's nice to watch Portman floating apathetically through barren corridors to a cover of the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", but it doesn't have a dramaturgical added value.

That's when it's much better solved how Hawley and his camerawoman Poly Morgan visualize the feeling of confinement. While Lucy floats in space the whole screen is used, on earth the picture format becomes almost square and expands whenever Lucy gets a little closer to her goal of flying into space again. Unfortunately, this interplay of the image format soon loses its fascination, until it finally just seems like a disturbing gimmick. The same goes for the sound, which is also geared towards Lucy's mood. There it would have been better if Hawley had concentrated more on other things and used these gimmicks in a determined way.

Like for example the title-giving Lucy. Not that Natalie Portman doesn't play her well, but the ambitious astronaut always seems far too aloof, whether weightless in orbit or pouting on Earth. To establish an empathic connection with this character proves to be difficult, sometimes even impossible. And so one follows the story, which garnished the developments with an overdose of predictability, apathetically, until from the initial curiosity about Lucy and her fate, actually only redundancy remains, which has been polished up nicely here and there.

For almost two hours I was lulled and fed with useless but polished moments. Emotions, however, are missing, because this "Lucy in the Sky" stays as far away from you as a walk on the ring of Saturn.