Now Showing: The Space Between Us
February 19, 2017
With a painfully unconvincing plot, “The Space Between Us” falls flat at its attempt to tug at the heartstrings of teenagers. Pitching the overdone story of star-crossed teenage lovers, the movie offers mediocre acting and cheesy romance with no real substance or emotion.
Asa Butterfield plays Gardner Elliot, a 16-year-old boy whose astronaut mother died giving birth to him on Mars. Intelligent but lonely, Gardner meets a teenage girl (Britt Robertson) nicknamed Tulsa online, and the pair form a connection. The first 15 minutes of the movie rushes through a brief explanation of Gardner’s utmost longing to visit Earth to find his father, and before you know it, Gardner has arrived at Tulsa’s high school—in full Martian awkwardness—ready to meet his friend. Unfortunately for Tulsa and Gardner, Gardner’s body is unaccustomed to Earth’s atmosphere, and staying on the planet would result in his death.
Not only was the storyline ridiculous, the movie screamed of an attempt to mimic the “destined to fail” fatally unfortunate lovers that “The Fault in Our Stars” and “Hunger Games” were able to encapsulate. Stuffed with such cliche lines as “loving you is what makes me human,” and “you are what I love most on Earth,” the script made it difficult to believe that any part of the teenaged couple’s week-long romance was even vaguely realistic.
While the film had a couple funny moments, the majority of the humor relied on Butterfield acting awkward and being unable to properly adjust to life on Earth. Although humorous at first, the act grew old rather quickly and stretched on for far too long.
Despite its implausible plot and lackluster cast, the movie featured catchy and whimsical music by James Bay and Ingrid Michaelson. The film’s only redeeming quality, the soundtrack was able to bring to life otherwise unremarkable scenes of proclamations of endless love and devotion.
Although the soundtrack was impressive, the overall movie was unable to strike any sort of emotional connection with its cliche love story. With a disappointing storyline and unimpressive acting, “The Space Between Us” does not deliver on its promise of an emotionally poignant film.
