With the best will in the world (or beyond it), a film about a mission to see newly-discovered whale-like life forms on Europa that sees most of the hope for that mission (or at least for we the audience to witness it) dashed a few minutes in from the start is always going to have a lot of work to do to keep its viewers' interest! Surely, taking this approach is just (rashly and even needlessly) setting oneself up for a fall? Yet the problem here is compounded by the fact that the accident responsible for the above situation ensures that we the audience see an astronaut played by a not-very-well-known actor (Khary Payton) in dreary, cramped, featureless spaceship surroundings for minute after minute of our time, and month after month of his.
Clearly, under those circumstances (and leaving out alien visitations or further disasters), we fall back on the psychological and philosophical aspects of a man in an awfully confined and lonely environment, and this is indeed what Eric Hayden (who directed and wrote) seeks to achieve.
By a quirk of science and navigation, our hero is actually heading back to Earth as we see him, so exchanges of messages that initially take forever to get answered gradually come to look more and more like normal conversations, so in this sense the thing looks authentic.
But do we need authentic? Indeed, can we stand authentic, when we out here in audience-land are not selected and trained for that as astronauts must be?
The film is further authentic in reminding us that: 1) space is gargantuan, and even our own solar system is pretty darn big; 2) hostile as they may be, our fellow planets are things of immense beauty that one day we will want to see for ourselves; and 3) spacecraft in space are very dangerous places for human beings to be (for all those moments when they are not being deathly boring). These are indeed messages worthwhile and true, but familiar enough from other (more exciting) films (not least the amazing "Gravity") - as well as from real life - to imply that "The Last Push" needs to give us more than this, if it is to succeed.
By and large, it does not do so, even if the ending offers at least a touch of pithily ironic drama.
In truth, this film does at the outset flirt with other, real-life matters - like space exploration becoming a private-sector issue, with all the implications that has; and the question of manned flights versus a never-ending set of cheaper and less-demanding probes and robot missions. However, it fails to take a very strong stance even there.
And, as I noted in my review of "The Martian" - a film asking somewhat similar questions and telling a somewhat similar (if more gripping and better-executed) story, thus far no human beings have gone further from Earth than the Apollo 13 guys, who set the record of (a mere) 400,000 kilometres in ... 1970. We are thus so far from Star Trek here that it's beginning to look embarrassing. But then, robots do it better, don't they? (Well except for Beagle 2 and now Schiaparelli, anyway).
Ultimately, "The Last Push" requires a last push from its audience, if they are to persuade themselves to stick with its 85 minutes. That seems like a long time in this context, though it would be wrong to say it is time entirely wasted. There is an insight here into the boring, lonely, claustrophobic, at-moments life-or-death profession that is "Astronaut", as well as into the very specific questions that exploring our solar system pose for the countless millions of us who would probably like it to proceed apace, and the few tens of us that might be involved directly should that popular will actually be acted upon.
"The Last Push" does show us how a few represent very many in this very particular way, but other films would also seem to have done this, and more persuasively and with greater drama than we have on offer here.
Clearly, under those circumstances (and leaving out alien visitations or further disasters), we fall back on the psychological and philosophical aspects of a man in an awfully confined and lonely environment, and this is indeed what Eric Hayden (who directed and wrote) seeks to achieve.
By a quirk of science and navigation, our hero is actually heading back to Earth as we see him, so exchanges of messages that initially take forever to get answered gradually come to look more and more like normal conversations, so in this sense the thing looks authentic.
But do we need authentic? Indeed, can we stand authentic, when we out here in audience-land are not selected and trained for that as astronauts must be?
The film is further authentic in reminding us that: 1) space is gargantuan, and even our own solar system is pretty darn big; 2) hostile as they may be, our fellow planets are things of immense beauty that one day we will want to see for ourselves; and 3) spacecraft in space are very dangerous places for human beings to be (for all those moments when they are not being deathly boring). These are indeed messages worthwhile and true, but familiar enough from other (more exciting) films (not least the amazing "Gravity") - as well as from real life - to imply that "The Last Push" needs to give us more than this, if it is to succeed.
By and large, it does not do so, even if the ending offers at least a touch of pithily ironic drama.
In truth, this film does at the outset flirt with other, real-life matters - like space exploration becoming a private-sector issue, with all the implications that has; and the question of manned flights versus a never-ending set of cheaper and less-demanding probes and robot missions. However, it fails to take a very strong stance even there.
And, as I noted in my review of "The Martian" - a film asking somewhat similar questions and telling a somewhat similar (if more gripping and better-executed) story, thus far no human beings have gone further from Earth than the Apollo 13 guys, who set the record of (a mere) 400,000 kilometres in ... 1970. We are thus so far from Star Trek here that it's beginning to look embarrassing. But then, robots do it better, don't they? (Well except for Beagle 2 and now Schiaparelli, anyway).
Ultimately, "The Last Push" requires a last push from its audience, if they are to persuade themselves to stick with its 85 minutes. That seems like a long time in this context, though it would be wrong to say it is time entirely wasted. There is an insight here into the boring, lonely, claustrophobic, at-moments life-or-death profession that is "Astronaut", as well as into the very specific questions that exploring our solar system pose for the countless millions of us who would probably like it to proceed apace, and the few tens of us that might be involved directly should that popular will actually be acted upon.
"The Last Push" does show us how a few represent very many in this very particular way, but other films would also seem to have done this, and more persuasively and with greater drama than we have on offer here.