Spaceman is out now on Netflix and the best way to describe the film is befuddling. On the surface if a film starring Adam Sandler and Carey Mulligan is coming out, it’s reasonable to expect it to be decent. When the director who brought us Chernobyl, Jonah Renck is at the helm, the expectations tend to elevate. Mix in that the source material is based on Jaroslav Kalfar’s novel “Spaceman of Bohemia,” which was critically acclaimed by Science Fiction literary critics and those expectations grow even more. So, all of these facts seem to point towards the film being a success, so what exactly occurred with Spaceman?
To me, it appears the film became off track from the moment it was adapted. If anyone were to take a second and google “Spaceman of Bohemia” and read any number of reviews, you would see that the book has some elements of humor to it. This would come as a shock to anyone who sat through this. The film is a nutshell Jakub (Sandler) up in Space as a member of the Czech space force, in denial that his life on Earth is in ruins. While exploring the root of this purple cloud which has been in space for four years, which only now is causing distress to the people of Earth. While traveling to darkest reaches of spaces, a creature (which kind of looks like a spider and is voiced by Paul Dano) comes aboard the ship and proceeds to spend 2/3 of the film hearing Jakub’s life story and realizing just how horrible he has been to his wife Lenka (Mulligan).
Mulligan and Sandler attempt European accents which fall flat, much like most of the film. Perhaps the idea was to make the film more reflective than highlighting the absurdity of everything that was occurring. The issues that were occurring with his toilet on the space craft. Getting a therapy from a space creature. That absurd communication device he uses to contact home. All would have been perfect moments to do what they clearly were avoiding. However, by changing the dynamics of the source material, the end result ends up being entirely different. A rare misfire for Netflix.