Review: First Man

The story of astronaut Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling), who is about to go down in history being the first man to walk on the moon, circa 1969. Among the famous characters, Corey Stoll plays Buzz Aldrin, Shea Whigham is Gus Grissom, Pablo Schreiber plays the infamous Jim Lovell, whilst Jason Clarke is Armstrong’s friend and neighbour, Ed White. Ciaran Hinds and Kyle Chandler play the NASA men on the ground, whilst Claire Foy plays Armstrong’s nervy wife.

Real-life Astronaut movies aren’t particularly my bag, the most popular ones like “The Right Stuff” and “Apollo 13” left me particularly cold. I won’t count “Hidden Figures” since it’s entirely about figures on the ground, but I liked that film nonetheless. I’ve gotta say I entered into this 2018 flick from director Damien Chazelle (“Whiplash”, “La La Land”) and screenwriter Josh Singer (“The Fifth Estate”, “Spotlight”, “The Post”) rather trepidatiously, as the film didn’t especially set the box-office alight nor were critics that rapturous in their praise for it. For the most part, I actually rather enjoyed the film, surprisingly enough. It deserved a much better fate at the box-office if you ask me.

Chazelle has made an immediately visually arresting and beautiful-looking film, and at least for a know-nothing like me, a pretty damn convincing one, too. From what I’ve read, Neil Armstrong was a pretty private, unassuming sort of guy, and although he doesn’t really look like the man, Ryan Gosling is probably the only guy around who fits the bill. A rather minimalist, quiet actor, he gives a minimalist but in no way dull or stone-faced performance. He’s just not the kind of actor who wastes a facial expression or movement unnecessarily, and he’s playing a man of great reserve (though capable of appropriate emotion when faced with untimely deaths). In a way, Gosling reminds me a little of Steve McQueen (especially in the terrific “Drive” where he played a very McQueen-esque stunt driver character) He gets you inside the head of a man who didn’t give out a whole lot of info on his inner self, mostly just using his subtle, pensive facial expressions.

On the opposite end of the scale, and in the film’s one big flaw we have the shockingly Oscar-nominated Claire Foy in one of the year’s most wrong-headed, jarringly unsubtle performances. Full of overwrought emotion well before it’s even appropriate for the situation, the actress seems constantly on edge. Within the first ten minutes of the film, she’s shaking, sweating, her eyes all jittery and she’s chain-smoking. I get it, her husband has a dangerous job to do (and early on they’re both met with a personal tragedy), but it’s so overstated in Foy’s performance that she seems like she’s acting in a completely different film to everyone else – a 1950s psychodrama. It’s shockingly bad, though I’ve read that the Armstrong’s two sons think the film is an accurate portrayal of their parents (So don’t just take my word for it, I guess since they knew the people). Worse, her character is such a nagging wife stereotype and frankly, I couldn’t see her side of it, really. I mean, hindsight is a helluva thing, but I keep thinking ‘Shut up, lady. He’s doing important work for mankind!’. Obviously, that isn’t the reaction Chazelle, Singer, and Foy wanted me to have. Combine that with Foy’s silly performance and you’ve got a completely unwanted and unnecessary presence on screen. I put most of the blame on the actress though, as I found her completely distracting. Someone should’ve told Foy that less is way, way, way more, she starts at 11 and just keeps going. I also think the camerawork by Linus Sandgren (“American Hustle”, “La La Land”) is inappropriately shaky during simple dinner table scenes, whilst admittedly quite appropriate for the NASA mission scenes. On the plus side, although they’re not afforded a great deal of screen time, the supporting characters are all appropriately cast – Kyle Chandler (born to play a NASA guy if you ask me), Jason Clarke, Patrick Fugit, Shea Whigham, and Ciaran Hinds all convince just fine. Outside of the aforementioned histrionics with Foy, Chazelle and Singer convey the danger of the mission perfectly convincingly to me, as this had the potential theoretically to be another Hindenburg or Titanic in regards to the pressures to keep up with the ‘Space Race’. It’s quite tense watching Armstrong and co. getting ready for the launch. Given how relatively new this all was, these guys must’ve had balls of steel. Being pilots to begin with probably helped a bit I’m sure, but the eventual flight scenes are actually rather tense, even scary. Although I haven’t heard him speak out against the film, I wouldn’t be surprised if Buzz Aldrin didn’t entirely agree with the way he’s portrayed in this film by Corey Stoll. He’s used by the filmmakers to be a cocky jerk in contrast to the quiet stoicism of Armstrong, and I get why that is the case. For all I know, it might even have a little basis in truth, but I’ve never read anything to suggest that Aldrin was as much of an insensitive prick as Stoll portrays him to be here. He’s not in the film all that much, so it’s not exactly a flaw with the film, but I did find it rather curious nonetheless.

Two-thirds a terrific film, one poor characterisation and performance by Foy stops this fascinating and effective film from being even better than it is. Gosling is terrific, and it looks gorgeous. Armstrong was clearly a great and fascinating – if not a terribly showy or colourful – man. Worth seeing, warts and all.  

Rating: B-