Disclaimer: There may be spoilers below, so if any of the content pictured below is of interest, proceed with caution.
This movie had a lot going for it; a tiny cast (four people), decent budget, and a human drama as the engine. It stars Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim, Toni Collette, and the standout Shamier Anderson. Perhaps it is that the three characters are reserved scientists and/or astronauts making Anderson's performance more vibrant. Somehow in every scene he invoked a world of emotion that made me feel when he was happy or sad. The movie was on track to be pretty amazing until the last third where it went downhill, falling into several traps that near-term Sci-Fi movies do. But ignoring that aspect, it still just went out into left field and broke down completely on characters whose actions just stopped making sense. It's good for a quiet movie to fall asleep to and I hope to see Anderson in more movies. [Update: After writing this, before publishing, I saw I get my wish!]
It's crap. The premise is a little dodgy, ("...extremely unbelievable" according to @christylemire, "...lacking" says @lenalwilson). This is not Gravity, and Anna Kendrick is no Sandra Bullock, (or Luca Parmitano [...senator]). Perhaps portraying astronauts is tricky because of how they are perceived--astronauts embody excellence; highly-disciplined, experienced, well-trained professionals. Kendrick et al. fail to approach this. It's so bad, the cast can't even feign survivors' guilt because, mercifully, Kendrick's character dies, unfortunately not soon enough to save this wreck of a motion picture.
Just after starting the movie, during the opening voice over, I wrote down that this movie "spells out this is 'Wanted' meets 'The Old Guard'". Damn I nailed it. It even had some fun unique guns and bullets just like Wanted! Mark Walberg demonstrates that he has just given up on movies in my opinion. Rather than over-acting like he did in some earlier in his career, now he has resigned himself to be this flat character with no acting range, poorly manufactured emotion, and 100% reliance on his body. Like every action movie for too many years, the ending was ridiculous. Suspend disbelief on reincarnation? Sure! A motorcycle jumping off a cliff and landing on the wing of a plane flying below? Nope. The only redeeming part of this movie was Chiwetel Ejiofor having fun as the villain.
Where to start? Great casting. Kate Winslet, Jean Smart, Julianne Nicholson, (& more). Susan Hegarty's dialect coaching--just overnight Hegarty's Emmy already. The content warning(s) 😳 Sooo much Trauma. Bring the Kleenex towards the end. Mercy. Even if it's difficult to watch at times--it's exceptional work. Brad Ingelsby has written & created something that almost sneaks up on you before knocking your socks off. Craig Zobel's directing, Lele Marchitelli's score--artisans. Who needs plot summaries? Small-town detective juggles investigating multiple crimes while her own life is sufficiently complicated.
Are some films oddly...fitting to coincide with the current pandemic? (Looking at you, Endgame). Although this Canadian-made spectacle is good, one can quickly be disappointed (read: mildly nauseated) thanks to the credits. The writers/director/producers were mostly dudes. Another Hollywood sausage fest, even when it's made in Canada, we don't need. Acknowledging its flaws; Spontaneous weaves together a variety of topics and experiences from the past year+ including death, fear of the unknown, complex grief, widespread confusion, etc. Leave it to the Canadians to hit one out of the park despite the flaws.
