Paul O’Rourke
WHILE there have been a few movies to tackle the tale of man’s journey into space, none have told the story of the first person to place their foot on extraterrestrial ground. Until now.
Neil Armstrong was of course that person, and the ground in question belonged to the moon, (unless of course you believe like many that the whole thing was staged at a film studio here on earth).
Aside from a 1996 TV Movie entitled ‘Apollo 11’, it’s surprising that there have been no other efforts to retell the moon landing.
Perhaps much like ‘Black 47’, filmmakers feared the subject matter was too big, or perhaps thought it too familiar to the masses who have seen the original grainy footage countless times before.
But the story of Armstrong’s life provides a suitable entry point, and that’s where the producers of ‘First Man’ decide to launch this particular project.
Based on the book by James R. Hansen and directed by ‘La La Land’s’ Damien Chazelle, the film features ‘City of Stars’ leading man Ryan Gosling as America’s heroic astronaut.
Think ‘La La Land’ and you might expect some space crooning or gravity boot tap dancing, but no such luck. The script is penned by Josh Singer, best known for Oscar winning sombre abuse expose, ‘Spotlight’, thus guaranteeing a lack of lunar chorus-line antics.
Gosling perhaps shines best when asked to perform emotionally unavailable characters, as appears to be the case with Armstrong, a man who puts his job first, and his family second.
This detached nature causes friction at home with wife Janet (Claire Foy) and their children, but later we see some humanity with a touching display of lunar emotion that ties the whole film together.
Chazelle impresses again with his directorial attention to detail, and the best part of this movie is the realistic rocket ride where you really feel like you’re being blasted into space with the crew.
So get your space suit on and head down to you local IMAX for an out of world experience, which we award a review score of 4 stellar stars.
