Genuinely imaginative sci-fi

Rating: 9/10 (2 January 2017)

I am definitely not a sci-fi enthusiast, and I am inspired to write this review by its being the film of this genre that I have enjoyed the most. I realize this is not a popular view, but I am hoping that its being unusual is what makes it worth presenting. Since much of what I like so much about it bears implicitly on what I generally dislike about the genre, it might be better to skip this review if you are a devotee of the latter.
Jim Preston, a would-be space colonist accidentally and irrevocably brought out of hibernation only thirty years into a hundred-and-twenty year voyage, finds himself alone among the five thousand unconscious passengers, and, after a year of miserable loneliness, succumbs to the temptation to awaken Aurora Lane, a beautiful and lively young woman, to be his companion. A love affair soon blossoms, but without her realizing she has been deliberately awoken.
Though the science involved is well beyond our present reach, in its effects it is readily understandable and credible, while still being dramatic and sometimes visually stunning. Too often in science fiction, far-fetched ideas and absurd aliens are offered as a pathetic substitute for the real feast of the imagination to which we are treated here, where we are confronted by how human beings might behave under extreme but imaginable circumstances which force them to ponder the point of their existence. The setting of outer space is beside the point as regards the dilemmas raised. The question, for example, of what might motivate a space traveler to abandon for ever the world and people he has known is not very different to that which has confronted colonists for the last three thousand years. Nuance too reigns in this story, not simplistic black and white morality: can any man honestly say he would have felt no temptation whatsoever to awaken Aurora?
The humour is rich, gentle and often ironic, never coarse or in one's face. There is easily enough of it to stop the film taking itself too seriously, while it complements rather than undermines the dramatic tension, an example being when Jim sends a desperate communication to Earth about his predicament only to learn a reply will be forthcoming in an estimated fifty-five years. The android bartender is a delightful third character, his apparent decency and humanity cleverly juxtaposed against the reality that he is not human and feels nothing.
There is only one other, minor character, making the film dangerously dependent on the acting of the two main characters, but the film-makers were well rewarded for the risk they took: Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence play them superbly.
Edmund Marlowe, author of Alexander's Choice, a novel, amazon.com/dp/1481222112