THE MIDNIGHT SKY – Rated PG-13 – 1 hr. 58 mins.
DIRECTOR: George Clooney
WRITERS: Lily Brooks Dalton (based on the book Good morning Midnight by)
Mark L. Smith (Screenplay)
STARRING: George Clooney, Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo, Caoilinn Springall, Kyle Chandler, Tiffany Boone and Demian Bichir
The week of Christmas was a blur, so I’m sorry to say that I’m just getting to all of you regarding this film. I got to catch it finally on Christmas Eve, even though I had a link sent to see it earlier, but the hustle and bustle of the Holiday season had me waiting to catch this one with a dear friend on the night of Santa’s arrival, after it hit on Netflix December 23rd!
I was super excited to see George Clooney back on screen, and excited too that he was back in the Director’s chair, as I’ve loved a few of his previous stints in that chair including Ides of March (2011), The Monuments Men (2014) and 2017’s Suburbicon too.
Having the opportunity to catch this one, with a life-long friend by my side, added to the evening, as we settled in for a gander at George, along with two more of my favorite actors, Felicity Jones and David Oyelowo (as he has been one of my favorite interviews along the way too!). With all this anticipation mounding, very quickly I began to wonder if I had put too high of expectations onto the journey I was about to experience, as I was already not feeling totally engaged as to what was happening on screen, as the back-and-forth storyline seemed rather disjointed from the start…
Trying to find my way, I kept attempting to become engrossed in what was happening on screen, but somehow, as much as I tried to give this film an opportunity to wow me somewhere along the way, The Midnight Sky just never reeled me in, as I continued to try to find some semblance as where this journey would finally arrive. Truth be told, I was so hoping that this film would become emotionally charged, as we ventured through the vast wasteland of the planet that Earth has become. But nope, you don’t really gain any emotional attachment to any of the characters throughout this one, as even Clooney’s usual charisma, and good looks, can’t even save the ultimate demise of this film. I was also hoping that The Midnight Sky might become an explosive Sci-fi Thriller, with Felicity Jones and David Oyelowo as our leads on the epic journey we would end up taking… but nope, that quest didn’t manage to happen either. I was even hoping that at some point we would reach a final climax of epic proportions, that would ultimately end up changing the entire trajectory of this film for me, and my viewpoint to that point in one fell swoop, but I am even sadder to say, that was a pipe dream of mine along the way too. As this movie labored on, and I do mean labored, I found myself questioning both my girlfriend Karen, and my hubby towards the end too, to see if I was missing something that they had found engaging or astounding with what were watching, and the performances on screen. Even more sad, was the fact that neither of them was feeling this film either, which just added to the dismay I was having about how truly awful this film ended up being. I tried watching this film for a second time, all by myself, thinking that there had to be something I missed, something that would truly give me satisfaction from within viewing it again, but nope, it still came across as a film that by all accounts should have really been an incredible film for Netflix, but instead just ended up being one of those films that gets lost in translation, never achieving the greatness that it had all the potential to achieve. In the illustrious words of the man I live with, when I have tortured him with yet another bad film in his mind, you know, one of those films that he knew from the start he didn’t want to sit through with me, regardless if at the theater or at home…The Midnight Sky ended up being a film that “took away 2 hours of his life, that he is never getting back”, so I’m afraid it is going to be quite some time, before he takes my lead in making the movie choice for him!
MATINEE CHAT with Kathy Kaiser 