A stowaway on a mission to Mars sets off a series of unintended consequences.
Chuck says:
Moral dilemmas abound in Joe Penna’s “Stowaway,” a space adventure that’s less about cosmic spectacle and more about various crises of conscience the crew of a spaceship traveling to Mars must face. Though at times it does achieve a sense of grandeur of recent interstellar epics, the main concern here are the interactions between the four travelers who find themselves concerned more about matters of survival and sacrifice than the complications of tripping through the cosmos.
Marina (Toni Collette), Zoe (Anna Kendrick) and David (Daniel Dae Kim) make up the crew of Hyperion who embark on a two-year mission to Mars, taking the first steps in colonizing the Red Planet. And while the launch goes off as planned, trouble soon arises when errant technician Michael (Shamier Anderson) is found aboard, unconscious and bleeding. What with the ship’s oxygen and food supply calibrated for three, it soon becomes apparent that while this number may traditionally be considered a crowd, four on a trip to Mars is more like a mob.
Scientists that they are, Marina, Zoe and David, along with the folks back at NASA, begin to crunch numbers in an effort to figure out just how resources onboard the Hyperion can be stretched to accommodate an extra crew member. Adjustments are made, habits are altered and it looks as if they may all survive by the slimmest of margins…until those too are compromised and only dire decisions are left to be made.
Penna does a fine job of creating a low-grade sense of tension, one in which the problem facing the crew seems initially surmountable and by tiny gradations disappears until there’s little hope left. Obviously, the viewer is aware the worst-case scenario will result, but the fact that you hold out for a solution is a testament to the director’s skill in creating and sustaining this tone. Too bad he and co-writer Ryan Morrison weren’t as attentive in writing the script. There are at least two plot holes that are so glaring, if one were to discount the film entirely because of either of them, I wouldn’t be able to dissuade them of their opinion. (Just how is it that Michael ends up as a stowaway again?) This and an occurrence at the end seriously hamper the movie, opening it up to many logical objections, making it hard to defend.
Still, I felt as though the parlor game at play regarding which of the four characters would have to go was intriguing enough to brush these concerns aside in order to see how it all played out. Credit the cast for keeping me engaged, the four actors grounding each of the characters with a humanism that was relatable. There are no villains in this piece – we understand why each of them do what they do – which points to a strength in the script that makes its other flaws all the more regrettable.
On par with ”Gravity” and “Ad Astra” in terms of visual spectacle, Penna’s film begs to be seen on a big screen. Not only are there scenes of great beauty and wonder undercut by our being limited to seeing this at home, but the third act is fraught with a perilous spacewalk that would have been all the more terrifying and impactful were it seen on a big screen.
To be sure, “Stowaway” could be narratively tighter, but the drama it contains is top-notch, so much so that if you give yourself over to its emotional pull, you’ll likely be unable to shake it for days. Be prepared for that last scene…
3 Stars
Pam says:
To read Pam’s review as published in The Daily Journal, go to
