The Aeronauts
Director - Tom Harper
Cast - Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Himesh Patel
The hiring of Steven Price to compose the score for The Aeronauts, the new Amazon film that's basically a period remake of Gravity, that Price won an Academy Award, is either purely coincidental or cleverly orchestrated.
Price’s music, despite more obvious attractions like the breathtaking visuals and therefore the strong central performances, is one among the foremost enjoyable aspects of a movie that's brimming with technical excellence. Reuniting Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones for the primary time on screen since the idea of Everything, The Aeronauts is additionally a movie about human ambition, although it being sneakily retrofitted as a feminist fable could be morally questionable to some.
Jones’ character, Amelia Rennes, is reportedly a composite of several historical figures who were involved in early aeronautical experiments with hot air balloons. She wasn’t, however, a neighborhood of the historic flight that this film dramatises.
This isn’t entirely unusual. Several films have done this within the past. Jessica Chastain’s character in Zero Dark Thirty was also a composite of several men and ladies who were involved within the global manhunt for Osama bin Laden. The crucial difference is this: a true person accompanied the aeronaut James Glaisher on his momentous 1862 gas balloon flight, which person, Henry Coxwell, has been omitted entirely. to place matters in perspective, imagine Damien Chazelle axing Buzz Aldrin from First Man and replacing him with a fictitious character.
It’s a bizarre move, one that does little else than function a distraction from the quiet achievements of a really well-made movie, and Jack Thorne’s inventive screenplay. Thorne, the genius British writer who has been involved shows like Skins and this is often England, and also the play Harry Potter and therefore the Cursed Child, frames the story around Glaisher and Rennes’ maiden flight. While the airborne sequences unfold, essentially in real time, Thorne seamlessly weaves in flashbacks to flesh out the characters and to inform their stories leading up to the historic moment.
Curiously, both Glaisher and Rennes were mocked for his or her obsessions, no matter gender. Although Rennes certainly had a harder time convincing her family to permit her to pursue her goals. Her tragic relationship together with her husband, which is inspired by a real story, is that the film’s most emotionally resonant arc. But as strong as Jones is in her part, Redmayne’s natural timidity does his character no favours.
The film’s stunning aerial sequences, gloriously shot by cinematographer George Steel and elevated tremendously by impeccable visual effects, didn’t deserve the Amazon Prime treatment. it's quite ironic, and considerably depressing, that a movie that begs to be seen on an IMAX screen will probably be consumed on mobile phones. But the longer term of entertainment is handheld, and it’s here to remain.
Particularly thrilling is that the film’s final set-piece, during which a delirious Glaisher and Rennes plan to initiate their descent. Not only is it physically gruelling — the weather is below freezing and therefore the air is thin — but the duo must also come to an agreement about when to quit and switch back around; they’re in uncharted territory, with no idea of what to expect. Director Tom Harper deftly dials up the strain parallel to the balloon’s ascent, and arrives at an emotional crescendo when the aeronauts are finally confronted by their hubris.
It’s a personality piece, ultimately; a legitimate winner from a studio that has been somewhat overshadowed by Netflix when it involves awards season fare.