Walking on the Moon

Venice Film Festival 2018 opened but not without controversies. But if reports are to be believed, director Damien Chazelle’s upcoming film, First Man - that takes a look at the life of astronaut Neil Armstrong as well as the space mission that made him the first man to walk on the Moon - has dazzled critics.

Starring Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong alongside Claire Foy (The Crown) and Jason Clarke, the film opened the festival and is so good that Variety noted in its review: “After seeing First Man, it’s doubtful you’ll think about space flight, or Armstrong’s historic walk, in quite the same way. You’ll know more deeply how it happened, what it meant and what it was, and why its mystery — more than ever — still lingers.”

The Hollywood Reporter was just as awed. “This is a strikingly intelligent treatment of a defining moment for America that broadens the tonal range of Chazelle, clearly a versatile talent, after Whiplash and La La Land. What’s perhaps most notable is the film’s refusal to engage in the expected jingoistic self-celebration that such a milestone would seem to demand. At a time when the toxic political climate has cheapened that kind of nationalistic fervor, turning it into empty rhetoric, the measured qualities of Josh Singer’s screenplay, based on James R. Hansen’s 2005 biography of Armstrong, are to be savored.”

The Guardian, too, is impressed by the execution with which the film has been made even as it questions its purpose. “It is a movie packed with wonderful vehemence and rapture: It has a yearning to do justice to this existential adventure and to the head-spinning experience of looking back on Earth from another planet. There is a great shot of Armstrong looking down, stupefied, at the sight of his first boot-print on the moon dust, realizing what that represents.”

First Man is said to be a “serious awards contender” but Claire Foy has been relegated to the wife’s role, as has been pointed out by some critics.

Indiewire’s Michael Nordine notes: Claire Foy’s is “relegated to simply being the concerned wife, though she brings tenacity to the role”.

The Independent is sold on the film and Foy’s role, on the other hand.

Foy, noted the publication, “is an exquisite study in 1960s American housewife acceptance. Acceptance of her husband’s refusal to communicate with her or their children properly, especially after the death of their young daughter,” before adding: “In a film that has the moon landing and multiple rocket launches, he [Damien Chazelle] resists the obvious temptation to rely on technical wizardry. This is a human story, remarkably well told.”