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Proxima

Drama and glamour, a space story about a woman more heroic than Wonder Woman. On Prime

Proxima

Grade: B+
Director: Alice Winocour (Disorder)
Screenplay: Winocour
Cast: Eva Green (Frank Miller’s Sin City), Matt Dillon (There’s Something About Mary)
Run Time: 1h 47m
Rating: NR
By John DeSando

“Anyone who sits on top of the largest hydrogen-oxygen fueled system in the world, knowing they’re going to light the bottom, and doesn’t get a little worried, does not fully understand the situation.” John Young

Why wait any longer for Wonder Woman? She’s Sarah, and she’s here in Proxima, the closest possible to a documentary and yet be a drama about a mother, Sarah (Eva Green-Vespers without the vodka martini), and her daughter, Stella (Zelle Boulant), preparing for mom’s space travel. French director Alice Winocour has helmed a strong story of a female astronaut, preparing for a one-year mission at the International Space Station that seems about as technically accurate as could possibly be.
 
Proxima is not a science fiction epic or space travel saga; it is a drama about the preparation for being away from family and earth for a year, a long journey for a mother with an eight-year old, very smart daughter. It makes Matt Damon’s sojourn to Mars in Ad Astra seem like a picnic.

Writer/director Winocour doesn’t allow the mommy motif to overshadow the accomplishments of a heroic woman in a man’s world.  The stressful situation is as real as the technical aspects of the film and no less daunting than the heart-breaking lives of male colleagues like Mike (a terrific tough guy Matt Dillon), who also must leave family for a year.

Proxima is a drama about talent and ambition, a modern dilemma when life-long dreams clash with familial-loving responsibilities. The film poses the question if the glorious job is worth the separation from family. It doesn’t try to answer that. It merely tries to show that “something is lost and something gained in living every day.”

Proxima is an impressive immersion in the challenges of astronauts’ preparation for their extraordinary job and depiction of the domestic struggles and successes that eventually come to good, talented people. It can be heavy-handed, at times trumpeting that to be all you can be is not easy on you or anyone in your life.

It comes as close as any space story to tell it like it is with the right stuff right here on earth, glamour and gloom.

John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JohnDeSando62@gmail.com

John DeSando holds a BA from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. in English from The University of Arizona. He served several universities as a professor, dean, and academic vice president. He has been producing and broadcasting as a film critic on It’s Movie Time and Cinema Classics for more than two decades. DeSando received the Los Angeles Press Club's first-place honors for national entertainment journalism.