A long, dull film about an unlikeable man and his unlikeable wife, filmed unwatchably with hand-held camera

Rating: 6/10 (21 October 2018)

Neil Armstrong joins the space programme in the 1960s and ends up commanding the first mission to land on the moon. Along the way, some family stuff happens.
This is a very long film about the part of Neil Armstrong's life leading up to the moon landing. It is directed by Damien Chazelle who deservedly won Best Director Oscar for La-La Land. His direction here seems to be based along the idea of filming almost everything in close-up with a hand-held camera. As a result, this is a physically difficult film to watch: it is a genuine relief when the camera rests on a tripod.
What else can I tell you about it? Ryan Gosling is asked to play Armstrong as utterly emotionless. Since this is something Gosling does in so many of his films, he does it very well. But it doesn't make you care about Armstrong. Nor do you care about his wife. In fact, they are both people you are quite glad that they don't live next door to you, a miserable, joyless pair.
The film is also dull and boring. How on earth did they manage that, given the story matter? But they did.
The actual moon landing is done well. That's about 5 minutes at the end of two and a quarter hours.
This should have been MUCH better than it is.