over-written but convincing space-age drama

Rating: 7/10 (3 November 2010)

The near tragic flight of unlucky Apollo 13 galvanized (at least for the duration of the crisis) a nation grown predictably bored with the Space Race after Neil Armstrong's historic one small step on the Sea of Tranquillity one year earlier. But its unlikely Ron Howard's dramatic re-enactment will have the same effect on moviegoers, however well crafted and exciting it can be. The trio of marooned astronauts is shown responding to their predicament with not unexpected fortitude, but the film correctly identifies the true heroes as the aerospace engineers who improvised a series of life-saving maneuvers using slide rules, string, and sealing wax. The best moments, as a result, are those at Mission Control in Houston, and the near documentary flavor of these scenes generates surprising tension for such a familiar scenario (facts aside, the outcome is never in doubt: high caliber stars like Tom Hanks and Kevin Bacon would never be allowed the indignity of a slow death in outer space). Too bad the suspense is then diluted by constant cross-cutting to flight commander Jim Lovell's anxious family: Kathleen Quinlan may in fact be the real hero of the film for enduring such a thankless token role (Mrs. Lovell's lonely vigil was certainly every bit as brave as her husband's ordeal, but it belongs in another movie altogether). The screenplay, credited to three writers (including 11th hour script doctor John Sayles) leans hard on space cowboy techno-jargon, but at least it's convincing. Someone obviously did his homework, and co-writer Al Reinert's experience making the 1990 documentary 'For All Mankind' (for which he watched five million feet of NASA Apollo footage) was obviously a boon.