Lucy Cola
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Sep 18, 2019 · Based on the story of Lisa Nowak, Hawley’s movie was sold as a loose retelling of the sensational mid-aughts crime story about an astronaut who tried to kidnap another NASA colleague at the Orlando airport (not far from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida) after an affair with a different astronaut soured.
Oct 4, 2019 · TRAILER for Lucy in the Sky: Trailer 1. List. 21% Tomatometer 128 Reviews. 31% Audience Score 50+ Verified Ratings. After an awe-inspiring experience in outer space, an astronaut...
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Sep 12, 2019 · Film Review: Natalie Portman in ‘Lucy in the Sky’. Natalie Portman and director Noah Hawley try to humanize the high-profile case of disgraced astronaut Lisa Nowak, revealing the enormous...
Sep 12, 2019 · Rated R, 126 minutes. THR review: Natalie Portman plays an astronaut struggling to adjust to life back on Earth in Noah Hawley's big-screen directorial debut, 'Lucy in the Sky.
- Natalie Portman stars as a high-flying astronaut who struggles to cope with life back on Earth.
- Best Reviewed Movies of 2019
- Verdict
By Chris Tilly
Updated: Sep 12, 2019 11:36 pm
Posted: Sep 12, 2019 11:30 pm
This is an advance review out of the Toronto International Film Festival. Lucy in the Sky opens in the US on Oct. 4 and in the UK on Dec. 6.
“I am alone now. Truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life.” Those words were attributed to Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins – the one who didn’t walk on the moon – and are referenced during Lucy in the Sky, as a way of summing up the existential crisis being experienced by the film’s title character.
For this is the story of those remarkable folk who reach for the stars, orbit the planet, then return to earth with a thud; struggling to come to terms with a world that suddenly seems so small. Legion and Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley’s directorial debut – from a Brian C. Brown and Elliott DiGuiseppi script that he retooled – works when examining the psychological fallout from such a trip. However, when combined with a lurid tale ripped directly from the headlines – Lucy in the Sky is “inspired by real events” – the movie slips into melodrama.
While back home on an enforced vacation, Lucy struggles to reconnect with her husband Drew (Dan Stevens) – who if anything is even more of a straight arrow – and so sets about doubling down to land a seat on the next mission. Lucy is told, “If you want to go again, you’re going to have to earn it.”
Lucy also joins the Circle of the Rolling Ball, a secret society made up of astronauts who have “seen the face of God” and find it easier to discuss their experiences with their space family rather than their Earth family (in between bowling and drinking beer). She falls for the charms of handsome astronaut Mark Goodwin (Jon Hamm), with whom sex makes Lucy feel something for the first time since her return. But the affair causes Lucy to become ever-more reckless, with dire consequences for both her home life, and her career.
This is where fact and fiction merge in a manner that isn’t all that palatable. As the event that inspires the narrative is Lucy Nowak’s 2007 arrest, which made front pages all over the world. Nowak was an astronaut who flew aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, then a few months later was arrested for the attempted kidnapping of a US Air Force Captain who was involved with an astronaut with whom Nowak was also romantically entangled. So a film that starts out as the study of a mind forever changed by space becomes the story of whether or not that journey was responsible for Lucy taking such drastic action, or whether she was driven to her crime by misogyny and mistreatment by the men at NASA.
Watch the trailer for Lucy in the Sky below:
A timely tale for sure, with Lucy criticized for being “too emotional,” pitted against another woman at work, and demoted by her lover when he starts seeing someone new. But utilizing multiple details from the real-life case, then jettisoning others, makes for an uncomfortable watch. Are the writers trying to give context to Lucy Nowak’s story? Or exploiting it as a jumping off point for their own tale? Either way, it makes for a muddled climax that feels at odds with much of what has gone before.
Natalie Portman is excellent as the title character, strong and tough in the film’s opening scenes, but hinting at a vulnerability that makes her mental disintegration all-the-more believable. Though at times it feels like she’s covering similar terrain as Black Swan, where her performance was more effective thanks to the superior material.
Noah Hawley’s feature film directorial debut is best when studying the character of Lucy Cola, a remarkable overachiever who reached the top of the mountain, felt truly alive, then struggled to cope with having to come back down. An interesting story in and of itself but when adding Lucy Nowak’s very specific story to the mix, the film loses its wa...
- Chris Tilly
Oct 4, 2019 · Lucy in the Sky: Directed by Noah Hawley. With Natalie Portman, Jon Hamm, Zazie Beetz, Dan Stevens. Astronaut Lucy Cola returns to Earth after a transcendent experience during a mission to space, and begins to lose touch with reality in a world that now seems too small.
Lucy in the Sky Reviews. All Critics. Top Critics. All Audience. Verified Audience. Jeffrey Harris 411mania. Natalie Portman puts in a strong, committed performance and offers an...
