2049 Doesn’t Have Beard Defrosters

George Clooney’s 2020 film, The Midnight Sky, is an ambitious end-of-the-world tale. The story alternates between Clooney’s struggle with Arctic isolation and a group of astronauts trying to make it back to a worthless Earth.

I wasn’t a fan of Clooney’s previous directorial efforts, like Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, but after he starred in Oh Brother Where Art Thou, I began to respect his acting ability.

Of course, his magnificent portrayal of an older guy that helped the young women of the Facts of Life (right before it went off the air in the late 80s) is worth mentioning. Also, his genius in Return of the Killer Tomatoes is something to behold and regrettably forget.

With the exception of the Mad Max films, The Midnight sky has more humor than most dystopian films, but it suffers from an overload of melodrama. Yes, the world ending would be a depressing experience, but the movie sometimes becomes fixated on grief.

The Sadness…It’s Growing, but Hey, Turn Up That Neil Diamond

Augustine Lofthouse is a lonely dude. He lives by himself in an arctic outpost and spends his days drinking scotch, checking the status of radiation building up around the globe, hooking himself up to a blood transfusion machine, and trying to contact the last group of astronauts on the planet.

When he rushes into the kitchen to put out a fire, he discovers a young girl. After unsuccessfully trying to contact someone to come back for the girl, he reluctantly takes care of the child and eventually warms up to her.

In a series of flashbacks, we learn more about Augustine’s past and how he winds up in a frozen landscape. The flashbacks are positioned well in the film, but every time Clooney examines his memories, he gets sad and remorseful.

His acting and his co-stars’ performances are impressive, but the overabundance of gloom in the story can become numbing until someone, like his young co-star Caoilinn Springall, lightens the mood. However, one mood-lightening moment that I didn’t enjoy (I was actually cringing and searching for ear protection) was when the astronauts go on a spacewalk to make repairs.

One of the jokers inside the ship, played by Demián Bichir, decides to play Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” while his colleagues make life-saving repairs to the ship’s exterior. They all sing along, except for the youngest crew member who mentions that she doesn’t know the tune, and everyone does their complex repairs while they’re grinning and bobbing along to Neil’s groaning.

I don’t hate Neil Diamond. I think he’s a cornball, but I liked him in The Last Waltz. As far as his acting is concerned, I’d rather watch a series of instructional films produced in the 1950s. By using “Sweet Caroline,” Clooney escapes to another movie.

His film is no longer a serious end of the world story; it’s a short, goofy musical in space. This may have been his intention all along. He puts something stupid in the middle of the movie so that it’s not such a downer. I get it, but I didn’t enjoy it.

While the scene was playing out, I thought about a plot device that’s been overused by great directors and dime-store operators for several years. Out-of-place musical numbers (in a non-musical movie) usually preempt a horrific event.

Clooney doesn’t disappoint, and a tragedy occurs. I won’t mention what happens, but I was pleased with the special effects used to create zero gravity blood. It’s one of the most horrifying and visually creative scenes in the picture.

Frozen Eyebrows Vs. Space Brooders

Great. Now that the entire world is dead, I can finally grow out my beard. This is America’s beard. No, it’s the world’s beard now. Only damn beard left on the planet. And no more trimming my ear hair either. Gonna let it grow out till it reaches my feet. Maybe I’ll get in Guinness. Shucks, they’re all dead too.

The film shifts back and forth between Augustine’s plight and the desperate astronauts. I liked the interactions between Augustine and his silent companion much more than the brooding space people.

The special effects are high-dollar, and most of the time, I thought they looked fairly good. Clooney’s role in Gravity must have had a profound impact on him. Some of the action scenes in space look incredibly similar to those in his previous film, but I think Gravity’s effects are more polished and realistic.

Some of the space scenes, especially when they have a wide shot of the space station rotating, appear computer-generated. Using digital effects is OK when you forget that you’re looking at something artificial. For the most part, The Midnight Sky’s effects are commendable, but every once in a while, you can see weakness in the visuals.

Although I picked on it, The Midnight Sky is an entertaining film, albeit a gloomy one. It has some predictable moments, but it excels in creating an atmosphere that feels desolate and without hope. That’s fitting when radiation has killed everyone on the planet except a sick bearded guy, a silent little girl, and a group of singing space rangers.