It's one of those close looks at one person's survival in a bizarre situation (compare it to '127 Hours' and 'Gravity'). Mark Watney is part of an astronaut crew who have gone to Mars to research the soil on its surface. A huge storm forces them to hurry back to the ship - the crew all make it except Mark. He is presumed dead and is stranded. He must survive on his own scientific skill and survival tactics to keep himself alive long enough to be rescued.
The film jumps from his situation to the rescue attempt back on earth (it takes quite a while for them to figure out he's still alive).
Mark thinks up incredibly clever ways of growing food, of keeping himself occupied, and finally, of communicating with earth.
We watch Mark Watney go through so much - pain, fear, joy, excitement, loneliness... of all things, what troubles him most is his loneliness.
There are so many barriers for him to break through, and so many ups and downs that it keeps the plot moving. The majority of the film is watching his mind at work.
It's not an easy part to play - Matt Damon is having to slowly and subtly develop the character's mental state throughout the film, showing his character's change from beginning to end.
It's not an earth-shattering film as the survival idea has been done before, but the ingenuity of Mark Watney is done well, and Damon's acting is fabulous (not sure if I could say the same for the characters on earth and the rest of his crew, though...)
No comments:
Post a Comment