The Martian

The Martian (12A)

USA 2015 141 mins Dir: Ridley Scott Cast: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, Sean Bean, Michael Pena

It’s strange to note that for a director who has made his name with lavishly mounted epics, Ridley Scott hasn’t been especially well served by his grandiose inclinations in recent years. Both his revisionist, gloomy take on Robin Hood and his peculiarly redundant spin on the Moses parable, Exodus: Gods and Kings were dull; and a recent attempt to break into more contemporary, nihilistic fare with The Counsellor was flat out disastrous.

In truth, Scott has always been spotty as a director. For every Duellists, Alien, Blade Runner or Gladiator, there always seems to be an interminable Kingdom of Heaven or incoherent Prometheus waiting just around the corner. So when it was announced that Scott was making his much-vaunted return to sci-fi with his adaptation of Andy Weir’s bestseller The Martian, filmgoers collectively held their breath.

Pleasingly however this is a Scott movie that, whilst true to form in featuring plenty of sweeping vistas, instead finds its greatest resonance and wonder in character intimacy. He’s always been an underrated chronicler of people, as bittersweet successes like Thelma and Louise and Matchstick Men attest, but here the human focus is tempered by an unexpectedly forthright sense of humour. 

Of course, much credit for the latter must go to Cloverfield writer Drew Goddard (originally earmarked to direct), who has amplified the dry wit of Weir’s book and crafted a script of genuine optimism. It also helps enormously that understated star Matt Damon is one who can effortlessly hold the camera, and forced to hold it he is during this story of an astronaut left stranded on Mars. The actor has always been adept at conveying emotional duress, both in dramatic contexts (Good Will Hunting) and in more action-related material (the Bourne movies), his role here combining both the visceral and thespian sides of his screen persona.

Damon’s character Mark Watney finds himself in the unenviable position of being the only person alive on the Red Planet after being left for dead by his crew mates during an intense storm. Resourceful and lively in the face of staggering, intergalactic odds, Watney soon learns how to harvest water, grow his own potato crops and generally maximise his limited resources in order to that he can subsist until a possible rescue mission. His most pressing objective is of course to get a message back to his fellow humans back on Earth.

Meanwhile, millions of light years away, Jeff Daniels’ hard-nosed NASA head Teddy must work alongside mission executives Vincent (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Mitch (Sean Bean), as well as PR guru Annie (Kristen Wiig), to help bring Watney home, stock roles ably filled out by the experienced cast of veteran performers playing them. On their way back to Earth, Watney’s crew mates, including guilt stricken commander Melissa (Jessica Chastain) and fellow astronauts Rick (Michael Pena) and Beth (Kate Mara), remain unaware of his plight.

With the striking, rust-coloured backdrop of Jordan’s Wadi Rum valley standing in for the scorched landscape of Mars and plenty of sweeping outer space shots, few could deny The Martian‘s obvious pleasures. But the real pleasure resides in the film’s intimate moments, Damon’s endearing central performance amplifying every minor success and deadly catastrophe that Watney faces whilst residing in his vulnerable habitat. The character’s humour is by and large unfailing, especially when he is compelled to rely on colleague Melissa’s endless array of disco music to make the time pass, popular hits from the likes of Abba unexpectedly leaping onto the soundtrack to propel the story forward alongside Harry Gregson Williams’ noble score.

It’s this sense of lightness and fun that makes The Martian such an unexpected Scott delight: those aren’t words often associated with the director. Yet at the same time, it’s easy to see what drew the famously hands-on director to the material: a story of pragmatism, teamwork and problem solving, it could easily be seen as a metaphor for the filmmaking process, a quest to get a seemingly impossible venture off the ground. Although the narrative could hardly be said to through any curve balls at the audience, the movie’s inspirational positivity ultimately gifts Scott with his most emotional material in years.