Leigh Paatsch’s verdict on Clooney’s The Midnight Sky, I’m Your Woman and musical Prom

Heavily bearded, highly stressed and hardly speaking, George Clooney is not the man so many know and love in his new post-apocalyptic thriller.

Here’s Leigh Paatch’s verdict on George Clooney’s The Midnight Sky; I’m Your Woman starring Rachel Brosnahan, and musical The Prom which has more razzle than dazzle.

THE MIDNIGHT SKY

George Clooney has not appeared before the cameras in a movie for well over five years.

So fans of the immensely popular (and in some eyes, implausibly handsome) leading man are going to be in for a shock when they first catch sight of him in his new project The Midnight Sky.

Heavily bearded, highly stressed and hardly speaking, this is not the George Clooney so many know and love.

But it is a George Clooney all will pay attention to. Such is the sheer gravity and intense focus he applies to the role of Augustine Lofthouse, a solitary Arctic scientist who could well be the last man left alive on Earth.

The year is 2049, and an unidentified global catastrophe has rid the planet of its entire population, except for Augustine. He elected to remain at his post at a remote base station near the North Pole when it was set to be evacuated.

George Clooney and newcomer Caolinn Springall in a scene from The Midnight Sky.

All that is keeping Augustine alive are the frosty weather conditions — which may not hold for all that long — and a blood transfusion machine with which he must keep a daily appointment.

So far, so absolutely bleak, right? Indeed so. But there will be a bright side coming, if you hang in there. The uplift designed to reverse the story’s downward spiral arrives in two distinct forms.

First of all, Augustine is surprised to discover he has a housemate in his crash pad on the polar icecap. Her name is Iris (newcomer Caolinn Springall), a girl who can’t be more than eight.

For reasons best known to herself — she refuses to speak — Iris decided not to join her scientist parents when vacating the station was an option.

Secondly, the movie has a second, more positive story to tell: that of a spacecraft heading back to a planet upon which it may not be able to land.

Felicity Jones as Sully and David Oyelowo as Commander Tom Adewole in The Midnight Sky

While we get to know the crew of five on the spaceship Aether (led by the fine pairing of Felicity Jones and David Oyelowo), Augustine and Iris must team up to find a way to open communications with the vessel before it is too late for all aboard to turn back.

Also directed by Clooney, The Midnight Sky is a relatively quiet, thoughtful and considered work, as much a modestly clever exercise in science fiction as a stirring tribute to the survival instinct.

The Midnight Sky is now showing in selected cinemas, and premieres on Netflix Wednesday December 23.

Director: George Clooney (Suburbicon)

Starring: George Clooney, Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo, Caolinn Springall.

***1/2

I’M YOUR WOMAN

***

Rachel Brosnahan is mesmerising in the thriller I’m Your Woman.

This slow-burning revenge thriller requires both constant patience and curiosity sent its way, but does ultimately reward the viewer for the effort. It is some unspecified time in the 1970s. Jean (a mesmerising Rachel Brosnahan) and Eddie (Bill Heck) have been married for quite a while.

The couple never got around to having a kid. The reason might have something to do with Eddie’s career as a thief. Then Eddie brings home a baby one day. Doesn’t say where it’s from. But the understanding is that Jean will raise the little cherub.

Then Eddie disappears, leaving Jean in danger of retaliation from his former associates. To protect herself and her newly acquired child, Jean must hit the road and hide away.

Firstly in the company of Cal (Arinze Kene), a stern former partner of Eddie. Then in the care of Cal’s seen-it-all-before wife Teri (Marsha Blake). While this unorthodox movie will be an acquired taste for some, there can be no denying there is something subtly powerful at work here. Keep your eyes on Brosnahan’s shrewdly controlled performance to work out what that something might be.

Now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

THE PROM

**1/2

Meryl Streep and James Corden in the over-the-top musical The Prom.

The feeling never quite goes away in this razzle-dazzle-get-out-your-jazz-hands movie that it must have been much more fun when it first seen on a Broadway stage. Meryl Streep, James Cordern and (a weirdly under-utilised) Nicole Kidman spearhead a tragic tribe of New York theatre professionals looking to put their latest flop behind them by drumming up some easy publicity in a faraway small town.

Does teenage Emma (Jo Ellen Pellman) need or want this motley lot’s help to go to her high school prom with her girlfriend as her official date? Not really. Will there be much hammy hoofing, huffing and highly dubious singing? Yes, there will. Over two hours of it, if you’re so inclined. Directed by Ryan Murphy, he of the much-loved (and missed) TV series Glee.

Now streaming on Netflix

Originally published as Leigh Paatsch’s verdict on Clooney’s The Midnight Sky, I’m Your Woman and musical Prom