Slingshot
The cold void of space has more warmth than anything in this boring drama
Casey Affleck and Laurence Fishburne look for a point to Mikael Håfström's tedious film Slingshot.
On a mission to farm methane from Saturn’s moon, Titan, the crew of the Odyssey 1 wakes from their hibernation to discover a problem: Something seems to have put a sizeable dent in their spacecraft. This is a problem because the Odyssey 1 is rapidly approaching Jupiter, which will slingshot the vessel to the moon. If the structural integrity of the ship can’t handle the gravity assist, the craft will essentially disintegrate in space.
The Odyssey’s systems say nothing is wrong. The Captain of the crew, Franks (Laurence Fishburne), is happy to listen to the systems, but astrophysicist Nash (Tomer Capone) is worried this points to a bigger problem. Both men look to the last member of the crew, John (Casey Affleck) to settle the debate.
Only, John’s got bigger fish to fry. See, he left this girl behind on earth and he can’t stop thinking about her.
Is the ship able to withstand its mission? Is the crew able to withstand the stress of each other? Can the audience withstand this cliché-ridden, maudlin drama?
Being alone in the void of space has long been a fruitful concept for horror and thriller genres, so it’s almost impressive that director Mikael Håfström made such a ponderous, boring dud of a film. It’s as if Håfström attempted to cram the movie Solaris into an episode of Lost. The performances are flat, the twists predictable, and the denouement is downright silly.
Even the production values are a bit chintzy. Most of the film (understandably) takes place inside a spacecraft. However, nothing looks lived in. The whole set is as sterile and devoid of personality as your local Apple store. There’s no dust, no personal items, it’s just plain white room after plain white room connected by plain white hallways. With so little visual interest, it’s up to the performers to make the material shine.
And that’s how we land on the biggest problem with Slingshot: Casey Affleck is so leaden in this movie it’s a wonder they could launch him into space. While it’s true that astronauts are trained to be calm and collected even under extreme circumstances, Affleck seems to have performed the whole movie while sleepwalking. He regards everything with the same, vacant hangdog expression, blinking appears laborious for him. Granted, if there was an Oscar for being expressionless, Affleck would be clearing another spot on his trophy shelf. In scenes with “the love of his life” Zoe (Emily Beecham) he looks like he’s fighting sleep.
And while poor Beecham is saddled with the “fondly remembered woman” edit — you know the one, where female characters are remembered rolling in sun-dappled white sheets while smiling beatifically — she makes no effort to bring any interest at all to her role. Zoe is theoretically an astrophysicist who’s in charge of John’s mission. But Zoe’s job in the movie is to pout, be available for sex, and roll about in the aforementioned sheets.
With a love like that, I’d also volunteer for a multi-year space journey…
Though the main characters are a total write-off, one beacon of hope shines through in this dreary space drama. Laurence Fishburne manages to muscle his way through terrible writing and poor direction to deliver a performance that’s at least interesting. If there’s a reason your reviewer didn’t fall asleep during this movie, it’s thanks to Fishburne. His captain character is authoritative and obsessive. It could mean that he’s Ahab chasing his whale or it could mean that he’s simply the most level-headed and determined member of the crew — Fishburne plays it close to the vest which actually makes the character vastly more interesting than anything else on screen.
If you’re looking for a reflective movie set in space, Solaris and 2001: A Space Odyssey are both available on streaming. If you’re hoping for something interesting to happen in your space thriller, Alien: Romulus is still in theaters. Frankly, staring at the sun for two hours would be a better use of your time than sitting through Slingshot.
Verdict: This movie should have been scrubbed before launch.
Slingshot is available in theaters or streaming on Apple TV+
