REVIEW: First Man

Directed by Damien Chazelle
2018 Historical Biography
2 hours 21 minutes
From Universal

Starring
Ryan Gosling
Claire Foy
Jason Clarke
Kyle Chandler
Corey Stoll
Pablo Schreiber
Lukas Haas
Patrick Fugit

It seems positively un-American to give two little yellow stars to a film that might be expected to secure four, huge, red, white and blue stars but I didn't much care for this at all.

If you didn't know, it's the story of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon in 1969.  I did admire much of the technical work... from preparing for the flight to the claustrophobic feel in the spacecraft to the tentative walk on the surface of the moon.  

There was even some great tension which gets a special mention here considering we know that it all turned out well.  Since it is a space movie it could have been done with great flourish and adventure, something akin to Star Wars, and thankfully, in that way, it was done smaller, more relatable, more personal.  

My main issue is how Armstrong is portrayed.  It has been said he had little to say and was quite humble.   I think when that is true of a famous person, it must be suggested in a film.  If a lead character has little to say and has a penchant for one-word answers or simply stares in lieu of a response, frame by frame, minute by minute, scene by scene, it's too boring to contemplate and not fun to watch.  Did he not get excited about anything in life?  I had no problem with a woman saying as we left the theater, boy, that was a disappointment.

Or was it the fault of Gosling in his portrayal of Armstrong?  I like him but let's face it, he is certainly given to a somnambulistic style of acting.  He seemed as though he was in a trance the entire two hours and twenty-one minutes.  Or maybe he was simply the perfect choice to play an astronaut who seemed to be in a perpetual trance.  As Gregory Peck, who made a career out of playing nice guys, once said... I think one of the hardest things to do as an actor is to make a good guy interesting because they can be awfully dull.  If a man is predictably nice, he can put audiences to sleep.

Gosling did display some rare emotion in a scene where his young daughter dies and there is some life injected into a scene where his wife insists he tell his two sons that he is going to the moon and to deal with their likely questions.

When the lead character has little to say, generally the second lead is more active but Foy is almost as dull in her portrayal of Mrs. Armstrong.  There's a scene of them greeting one another through a glass while he is in quarantine.  Neither of them speak or mouth I love you or even smile.  They just touched the glass.  Zzzzzzzzz.

I wondered on the way home if the Armstrongs divorced and so I looked it up.  Sure enough, they did.  No big surprise.  The cause must have been bored to death.

I give a super heads-up to the general look of the film, including the period feel, and also to the sound and sound effects which are perfection.

Director Chazelle and Gosling were far more in their last collaboration, La La Land.  I wonder why First Man wasn't released next year, a mere two months' away, for the 50th anniversary of Armstrong's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.


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