Home is Where the Heart Is: A Review of Ad Astra (2019) Dir. James Gray

“I must accept the fact I never really knew you,” a line uttered by Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) about halfway through the film. The line is delivered cold and detached, as most of Pitt’s lines are in Ad Astra. Roy is musing over his father, H. Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), a highly decorated astronaut who left Earth and all its comforts and fellow human beings far behind searching for extraterrestrial life elsewhere. Roy does not know his father. Yet, he is driven to follow in his footsteps to follow him into the universe’s far reaches. A great irony occurs: how do we reconcile abandoning life on Earth to find life anywhere else?

Ad Astra tells the story of Roy McBride’s quest in paced, meditational steps. The film progresses through voice-over narratives from inside Roy’s mind separated with thrilling bits of action. These remarks are isolating and stark as the desert dunes of planet Arrakis from Frank Herbert’s iconic science-fiction novel. Frank Herbert would probably approve of Ad Astra. The currents of emotional and philosophical run steady and deep. Themes of abandonment and identity orbit around every frame and line of dialogue in the film. One wouldn’t need a telescope to see them. And, while our eyes and ears gravitate toward the gorgeous cinematography and captivating sound design, our hearts seem to be left floating out of orbit, despite the film’s heavy-handed efforts to pull it nearer.

Roy McBride is pragmatic, unflinching, disciplined. He is seemingly in total control over his mind and body, which makes him an excellent astronaut. However, these qualities do not make Roy McBride a character we empathize with or even find interest in. If Roy McBride, by his own admission, does not know his father, why should we care if they reunite? When they find each other, the moment falls flat, Roy digests his father’s ridicule and disdain for being rescued by his son with apathy. We don’t know why Roy McBride became an astronaut. If it’s to win his father’s approval, the film doesn’t give us any emotive substance to believe it. The relationship between the McBride’s is lost on me, but Ad Astra is more than a father and son story.

H. Clifford McBride is located circulating somewhere near Neptune. His passion for finding alternative life is so fervent he willingly disposes of his own crew to push forward. He is found alone, and he has been alone for some time. The presence of another human being, his own son, seems to enrage him. H. Clifford McBride does not find the life he is looking for, and while he has seen many wondrous celestial things, what kind of life is he left with? Ad Astra is a story told almost entirely outside of Earth’s atmosphere, and yet it’s a story deeply about home and humanity. Life is here, it’s all around, and it’s waiting for you to discover it.