An unforgettable event becomes a forgettable movie

Rating: 5/10 (15 November 2018)

Have watched many very long, great movies it sometimes amazes me how quickly the time seems to pass in the viewing.
This is not one of those movies, it seems to crawl along at a torturously slow pace. I found myself checking the time several times in the course of the movie.
Part of the blame lies with the flat emotional tone held throughout the film by Ryan Gosling.
In a review of the Day the Earth Stood Still remake that starred Keanu Reeves, Roger Ebert commented on Reeves' flat, seemingly emotionless performance. Comparing it to Michael Rennie in the original 50's classic, Ebert said Reeves made Rennie seem like Hunter Thompson at closing time.
Gosling must have studied Reeves' performance carefully. A family tragedy torments him, and as a result there is a single emotional breakdown , but in the remainder of the film Gosling seems completely devoid of emotion. He is grayer than the lunar landscape he eventually walks.
And that lunar landscape, and the authentic re-creation of the astronauts' other flights and missions is the only reason this film deserves a five-star rating.