Review: The Space Between Us

BY CASSIDY NOWOSAD

The Space Between Us is a unique view on sci-fi romance, however this is one of the few things going for it. The plot is about a boy named Gardner living his whole life on Mars due to his mother dying while giving birth to him in space. He becomes online friends with a girl online known as Tulsa in Boulder Colorado with a troubled life. Gardner had recently found a transmission of his mother on vacation before she died with his father which motivates Gardner to find his dad.  However Gardner can’t travel to Earth due to his enlarged heart and is forced to stay on Mars; after this coincidentally the manager of the space mission wants to observe him which requires bringing Gardner to earth. The manager puts him in a holding cell, which he manages to break out of, and ends up running away with Tulsa in search of his dad.

The movie was very well done visually; Barry Peterson offered nice shots even in deserted areas leaving the romantic scenes with such more emotion. An example of this is when Tulsa and Gardner are sitting on a cliff where they rested for the night while traveling to California to find his father. This cliff was so beautiful despite the desolate and desertedness of the area. Watching it gives you a sense of warmness and love as they talk to each other. The music was mostly very fitting except a few moments which were a bit overdramatized due to its enormous intensity.

The plot however was a bit cliche, a lot of the movie’s twists were very expected because of the coincidences that kept happening. Anyone with common sense would probably guess what was going to happen throughout the movie. The ending was also very unsatisfactory- a lot of the predictable plot was revealed but it felt as though it left off where it started and no real progress was made. The deciding factor on whether or not a movie was very good is if it leaves you with a good sense of closure or keeps you thinking. The Space Between Us simply left you with an ending that had almost nowhere to go and no satisfaction to give.

Overall this movie had some redeeming aspects but the plot felt predictable and bland. I would give it a two out of five and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone unless they want to see cliches and nice cinematics.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]