Spaceman movie review: Adam Sandler enters his sad boy era in Netflix’s mesmerising science-fiction film

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But his motivations aren’t purely professional. Jakub, we are told, was primarily looking for an excuse to run away from his disintegrating marriage. His wife, Lenka, is played by Carey Mulligan, who elevates her underwritten character by injecting it with that trademark tortured defiance that she does so well. At some point in his mission, Lenka stopped returning his calls, sending him further into solitude. She plans on leaving him, but this information is withheld from the already alienated Jakub. In the film’s opening scene, a schoolgirl gets the opportunity to ask Jakub a question during a press conference: “Are you the loneliest person in the world?”

He might be. But just when you thought you’d figured the movie out — it’s like Moon meets Solaris, you’d decided prematurely — Renck introduces a wildcard in the form of an extraterrestrial spider creature. This creature, voiced by Paul Dano, has existed since the beginning of time and has the ability to peek inside Jakub’s spiralling mind. Instantly attuned to the sadness within him, and endlessly curious about why he’s feeling this way, the creature initiates a conversation. Before long, the creature — part Wilson from Cast Away and part therapist — forms a sort of bond with Jakub, and is christened Hanuš.

Hanuš’ observations about humankind are more philosophical than frivolous. Fascinated by Jakub’s yearning for Lenka, he asks, “You long for your mate only when she leaves? Why?” He questions the very concept of romantic oaths: “Why commit to a promise if it can readily be broken? What purpose does such a commitment serve?” Jakub has clearly never asked himself any of these questions, and this is where Sandler appears to be drawing from his long legacy of man-children on screen. We learn through fragmented flashbacks that he experienced significant trauma in his youth, as the child of an outed communist spy. Perhaps this is what birthed his hero complex.

Spaceman isn’t merely a soaring love story masquerading as a science-fiction mind-bender, it’s an indictment of masculinity itself. It’s also a rather literal representation of that ‘avoid going to therapy’ meme. Like Ryan Gosling’s Neil Armstrong before him, or even Cillian Murphy’s Oppenheimer, Jakub would rather take up a life-threatening project than confront more immediate matters. But even Hanuš, who maintains a degree of emotional detachment during all of this, can’t make sense of Jakub’s behaviour. After a point, his sadness begins to rub off on the arachnid, who finds solace in snacks. “Your memories are making me depressed. But the spread made of hazelnut did make my realisation less unpleasant,” he says with the cadence of a morose sage.

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Spaceman is a far stranger movie than it lets on. It doesn’t fully lean into the absurdity of Adam Sandler being trapped in an intergalactic vessel with a giant spider, but it comes close. In the hands of another director, the same premise would’ve probably yielded a funnier film. But filtered through Renck’s sensibilities, Spaceman is a deeply melancholic tone poem that has all the makings of a cult classic.

Spaceman
Director – Johan Renck
Cast – Adam Sandler, Carey Mulligan, Isabella Rossellini, Kunal Nayyar
Rating – 4.5/5