The Space Between Us

Somehow Hollywood continues to search for different outlets in conveying young love at the box office. Sure, the goal is always the same in terms of tapping into the youth market by promoting yet another transparent teen weepie but this time among the planetary stars. Hey, youngsters need catering at the movie theaters as well, right? However, one is not so convinced that the Young Adults (YA) genre is convincingly elevated by a flimsy frontier sci-fi romancer among the Clearasil crowd. Hence, The Space Between Us fits the bill as a scattershot and schmaltzy pimple-faced love story that has all the emotional stability of moon dust in front of a heavy duty oscillating fan.

Writer-director Peter Chelsom (“Funny Bones”, “Serendipity”) and fellow screenwriters Allan Loeb and Tinker Lindsay delve into the conventional cliches of a lame star-crossed lovers theme that wreaks of saccharine-coated simplicity wrapped in scientific triteness. The awkward mixture of lightweight sci-fi drama, pandering gooey-eyed overtures toward teenage girls still nostalgically embracing their Twilight fixation and space-age elements as filler exploration makes for a paper-cutter potency that creates unwanted space between us or any other species watching this cosmic claptrap. Give Chelsom some credit–at least his young protagonists are not another incarnation of obligatory hairy werewolves or fanged vampires, right?

The adolescent pen pals in The Space Between Us are truly from different worlds although this does not stop these particular kids from bonding deeply. Advanced academic in sixteen-year old Gardner Elliot (Asa Butterfield) is having a time of his life in corresponding with the edgy Tulsa (Britt Robertson) in the chat rooms. Whereas Gardner is a whiz in robotics and comes from prestigious stock (his late mother was a pioneering astronaut) his object of affection Tulsa is a motorcycle-loving wild child that had bounced around in the foster care system. The glaring dif...

What's your favourite thing about Earth?

You might ask that question for yourself while/after watching this film. This is not a great film, but surely different and enjoyable. This kind of storyline can be acceptable for the todays space ambition by the humans they have to accomplish. A couple of decades ago, it was called a fiction, still it is, but quite close to realistically possible.

So we had seen many films based on human connection with the red planet, Mars, but this one was a little different. It is romance theme, though not like east meets west. It is Mars meets Earth. The story of a boy from Mars and the girl from Earth. That's how it ends, but not that how it was initiated. It was the boy who searched for his connection with the Earth, and doing that, all the usual things happen, like some people come after him, like running and chasing.

Well made film. It was not a complicated screenplay, but the twist was unexpected at the end yet I did not think it was strong. Explained everything with details, as well as intentionally added some of scenes to cover up later parts when the narration takes the unexpected route. Best cast for sure.

Britt Robertson played the role ten years younger than her she is. But it does not matter, she still looks like a teenager. And Asa Butterfield was quite good too. The only usual thing about the film was the road adventure, though it did not take the usual route. Nothing was like you have already seen them. That's where it hand upper hand. The end was good, yet I felt it softened to bring a certain type of ending than a relevant one. Because it is a PG13 film and they wanted the conclusion that satisfy their target audience. So, it is a nice film and once watchable.

7/10