If you’re looking for a thrilling and entertaining movie,
without digressions into gratuitous (or even non-gratuitous) sex or violence,
you could do a lot worse than The Aeronauts. It’s the story of an
1862 adventure by a British scientist named James Glaisher (Eddie Redmayne) and
an balloonist called Amelia Wren (Felicity Jones). The film is, as they say these days, “inspired
by” a true adventure, i.e. it’s based on a real event, but the facts have been
changed a bit, sometimes quite a bit, to make the tale more interesting and/or
to fit into a reasonable time frame (in this case, a tidy one hour forty
minutes). Historical accuracy aside, the
strategy largely works here.
Let me alert you at the outset,while I still have your
attention, that The Aeronauts is an Amazon Studios release; so
while it is currently showing around the country at select theaters, it will
start streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video starting this Friday (December 20th). I should also note that the actiony parts of
the picture, compromising most of the second half and about which I shall have
more to say in a moment, are best seen on a large-ish screen - something you
may want to take into account when making your venue decision.
James Glaisher [James] was a mid-19th century meteorologist,
who believed that exploring conditions in the higher atmosphere – stuff like
temperature, humidity and barometric pressure – would help science to understand
and perhaps even to predict the weather, a belief which was considered radical
or impossible at the time. The actual
James Gleisher did indeed fly up in a gas-filled balloon in 1862 for these
purposes and in so doing became the first human to reach the earth’s
stratosphere, setting a world altitude record by ascending to nearly 40,000 feet
(about 12,000 meters) in the process. All without any oxygen tanks or pressurization
gear of any kind, nor adequate clothing. It nearly killed him.
In real life, James was accompanied by a balloonist pilot
named Henry Coxwell, but in The Aeronauts, he is replaced by a
fictional character, the aforesaid Ms. Wren [hereafter, Amelia], a young female
pilot. Why? Because this way, we are set
up for a battle between the sexes. Because in the current era, it is becoming
increasingly incumbent on filmmakers to include women in key roles, playing
characters with significant agency (and about time, too). But mostly, because
it seemed like a good idea to reunite the team of Redmayne and Jones, who had
so much success working together in 2014’s The Theory of Everything. As Stephen
Hawking and his wife Jane Hawking, both were nominated for leading role Oscars
in 2015 (he won, and she lost to Julianne Moore).
This time around, even though the story is constructed as
though James is the primary protagonist, The Aeronauts is really Amelia’s
movie. He’s got the perseverance of a bright and earnest, if rather dull, scientist.
She, on the other hand, has got the audaciousness, grit, flamboyance and
courage under pressure to pull this dangerous expedition off, if anyone can,
and to hold our attention while doing so. Jones’s Amelia Wren is, in writer-director Tom
Harper’s words “a firecracker”, which is just what The Aeronauts
needs.
The first part of the movie is just okay. It richly evokes
the time and place, and James's struggles to literally get his project off the
ground. This includes getting a skeptical Royal Society [of Science] to finance
the trip, procuring or building a sturdy enough balloon, convincing Amelia to be
his pilot; all the while allowing us to get some idea of the backstories of each protagonist. It’s a workmanlike setup, and
Redmayne and Wren are always nice to watch, but this portion of the movie is
not particularly special.
Once the big day arrives, however, the film really takes
off. We may presume to know how it eventually turns out, yet the adventure that
follows is so exhilarating, riveting, immersive and positively thrilling, it
doesn’t matter. A large, curious crowd has gathered around the giant balloon, with
James waiting impatiently in the basket dangling beneath, when Amelia finally appears
- making a splashy, surprisingly theatrical entrance, with her little dog no
less. The ropes are severed, and the
strange craft rises.
At first James and Amelia are giddy with anticipation and excitement,
not to mention wonder at the fabulous views, but then there’s a powerful,
nearly disastrous storm and after that, as the party reaches what turns out to
be the apex of their flight, well into the stratosphere – the cruising altitude
of present day long-range aircraft - the air becomes so thin and freezing cold,
James and Amelia can barely breathe. They are still rising and need to descend
to save their lives. The only way to do this is to release gas from the
balloon; but as it turns out the release valve is at the very top of the
monstrous air bag, and it is iced stuck. James is unconscious by now, so it’s
up to Wren. She starts to slowly climb, climb up the side of the giant orb,
with frozen, insensate hands and feet, a howling wind, fast-fading strength,
and … well, it’s an absolutely amazing, spectacular, edge of your seat scene. And
a beautiful bit of moviemaking by Harper, his cinematographer George Steel, and
of course, Felicity Jones. A most scintillating example of the magic of cinema.
The second half makes The Aeronauts a worthwhile
entertainment. That and the two leads, especially the wonderful Felicity Jones.
It may be just a “cinema of attraction”, but it’s fun.
1 hour 40 minutes.
Rated: PG-13
Grade: B
Currently in theaters. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video
starting Friday, December 20, 2019.
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