Stanaforth enjoys a good terrestrial sunset but he’s fixated on what’s to come. That’s the point Approaching the Unknown hammers at. Aside from Stanaforth only a small handful of people appear, mostly via the video link that connects him to Maddox, and his best friend back home in Mission Control, Louis ‘Skinny’ Skinner (Luke Wilson).Įxcept of course it isn’t really his home anymore. Much of debut writer/director Mark Elijah Rosenberg’s film deals with the impending sense of isolation. Make no mistake though, it’s a lonely business. Ultimately, as is usually the case, it’s because he’s searching for something, and perhaps more importantly because he can. He seems almost confused at the surprise his decision to embark on a one-way trip evokes in others. Strong brings the perfect mix of grim contemplation and iron will to his character. A second ship containing Captain Maddox (Sanaa Lathan) follows behind to lay the ground for a full community. He’s to set up base on his own with his special water reactor, self-designed and tested in laboriously recollected desert flashbacks. Mark Strong plays Captain Stanaforth, the advance guard in a planned colonization of Mars. There’s still plenty of opportunity to “science the shit” out of all manner of baffling technical components. Like last year’s phenomenally successful The Martian, the red planet looms large in Approaching the Unknown, but this competent, if not exactly gripping, drama is all about the journey. We’re in the midst of a deluge of space exploration movies as everyone looks to escape the constraints of Earth’s atmosphere.
Whatever space may be, it’s not currently the final frontier for cinema.
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