A beautiful concept wasted! I remember urging a lot of people to watch The Space Between Us owing to the sheer fact that its trailer tried to sell a dope story. I mean just try to image a child who’s born on Mars. He doesn’t know a thing about Earth, never been to it, everything he has learned so far is via a screen on his desk.

Now when you try to bring such a person to a world that he doesn’t understand, wouldn’t you be more interested in knowing about his perceptions? What he thinks about our planet? What fascinates him? It was supposed to be an exciting journey akin to the movie Room where you get to be at the same frequency as the protagonist of the story. Unfortunately, The Space Between Us is garish and shallow. It’s like a chick flick that is supposed to give you mere cheap thrills. With that last line, I must say teens are going to love it nevertheless.

Direction of The Space Between Us

Peter Chelsom directs nice. But the only problem is that he has to learn the difference between what’s deemed childish and what’s profound. The first half of The Space Between Us is quite intriguing. It grows great for a buildup but then mid-way after begins to derail. The movie doesn’t even have a morsel of gravitas to it from that point onwards and you wonder if it’s yet another teen movie after all.

still of Asa Butterfield and Britt Robertson in The Space Between Us

The point where he chose to go with the part where Gardner is trying to enjoy Tulsa as she blushes asking him to stop makes you want to shake your head so bad. It could have been put in subtly but Peter had to be loud about it.

“What is your favorite thing about Earth?”

Even as Gardner asks the aforementioned lines to strangers it feels like weirdly scooched in. He is suddenly saying that out of the blue without his character banking on something solid to chew upon. The movie chugs forward without focusing on how difficult it is for a Martian to adapt to our environment. Even Tulsa gets introduced in a snap. Don’t even think about going into the Science enclave!

You can buy The Space Between Us here:

That Awkward Plot Twist (Spoilers Ahead)

Gary is an Old Man. Why him? That’s one of those climax scenes the movie hides or rather tries to hide in an attempt to drop the mic eventually. It, of course, makes you question poor casting choices of the movie, even though Gary is an amazing actor, he doesn’t quite fit the bill, owing to how old he looks.

Gary Oldman‘s character Nathaniel Shepherd has a relationship with Sarah Elliot played by Janet Montgomery. When you see the movie take form there is one voice in your head that says Okay so Gary must be Janet’s father. But the movie hushes you soon and you stop thinking in that direction. It is a deliberate attempt to misguide you, and you can sense that as well.

But when you find out for real that Gary the Old Man is actually Gardner’s father it becomes weird and awkward at the same time. He just doesn’t feel right! Period.

The Final Verdict

The Space Between Us does put in you smiles. You like how the movie progresses. There is always that premonition there where you kind of predict what is going to happen. You know that there is a happy ending lurking given the theme of the movie. But all that stretching of cheesy lines and love doesn’t for a second let you get serious with it.

You can watch it if you want to feel some good romantic vibes, also if you are an avid Britt Robertson or Asa Butterfield fan. Just know that there isn’t anything dire to look forward to.

You can check out the trailer of The Space Between Us here: