The Aeronauts (Tom Harper, 2019): UK | USA

Reviewed by Kaio Farkouh. Viewed at the 2019 AFI Festival.

Director Harper fails to create an interesting story with characters’ depth, as the movie weighs on uninteresting flashbacks sequences. Sequences that hold back the movie to achieve something greater. The film follows the story of a meteorologist James Glaisher, Eddie Redmayne, as he teams up with the balloon pilot Amelia Wren, Felicity Jones, to advance our knowledge related to the weather, and the attempt to try to fly higher than anyone has ever flown in history.

Through the first act of the movie, John Trew, played by Himesh Patel asks a little kid, if he ever had the desire to be up there in the air – he says that he would much rather be up there – so would I. As the script goes back and forth between scenes in the balloon and on the ground. The best part of the movie is when the scenes take place up in the balloon.

The story occurs in real-time, which is great for the story and brings a sense of realism. A realism that is shown through the lenses, in beautiful wide shots in the air and the effective CGI on the balloon. The action scenes, that take place in the balloon will make you sit on the edge of your seat. They are original, as the director uses the height and the verticality of the situation.

Redmayne and Jones, who worked together in The Theory of Everything, back in 2014. And both earned acting nominees. Here, they can’t fly as high as they did back in 2014. Jones, who in some parts of the movie still playing her character as Ruth Bader Ginsberg in the movie On the Basis of Sex, as she tries to overcome a tragic past involving her husband and a society ruled by men. But she is able, to show a lot of joy in a character that can demonstrate a lot of strength when need it. Redmayne, who won the actor for best actor for his role as Stephen Hawking, can’t show any great depth in an uninteresting and boring character. A character that is only driven by his interest – in “changing the world.”

However, the story hits its lowest point when the scenes take place on the ground. In a way to create compelling and interesting characters through flashbacks. As writers, Harper and Jack Thorne navigate to the past of Wren and Glaisher giving us the reason they accepted this journey and what they have experienced in their lives.

The film succeeds the most when it takes place in the balloon. With great CGI and a lot of verticality in the action scenes that are very well directed, that makes you feel like if you were there with them. Although, the movie fails to make a case for their characters as the story becomes boring and hard to find any message behind the idea of “changing the world.”  In the end, the movie flies high when it takes it as an entertaining and fun experience, but it fails when it tries to take it too seriously.