Adam Sandler is showing off his acting chops again in Spaceman, a new sci-fi movie on Netflix from the director of Chernobyl – here’s what it’s about, who’s in it, and if it’s worth watching.
Sandler is the modern-day master of the goofball comedy, whether it’s iconic turns in Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer, underrated movies like Click and Big Daddy, and critically-maligned heaps of hilarious crap like You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, and Grown Ups.
However, he’s also a gifted actor with incredible range, something that often goes unsung. Paul Thomas Anderson tapped into it with Punch-Drunk Love, Reign Over Me flew under the radar, and Uncut Gems garnered long-overdue acclaim (it’s a shame he didn’t win the Oscar).
Spaceman is his latest dramatic effort, and it’s among some of the best new movies coming to Netflix in March. Here’s what you need to know.
What is Spaceman about?
Spaceman follows a lone cosmonaut (Sandler) on a mission to investigate a mysterious cloud near Jupiter. But it strains his relationship with his wife (Carey Mulligan), and soon he has nobody but a large alien spider (Paul Dano) to comfort him.
The movie, directed by Johan Renck (Chernobyl and Breaking Bad), is based on Jaroslav Kalfař’s 2017 novel Spaceman of Bohemia.
The official synopsis reads: “Six months into a solitary research mission to the edge of the solar system, an astronaut, Jakub (Adam Sandler), realizes that the marriage he left behind might not be waiting for him when he returns to Earth. Desperate to fix things with his wife, Lenka (Carey Mulligan), he is helped by a mysterious creature from the beginning of time he finds hiding in the bowels of his ship. Hanuš (voiced by Paul Dano) works with Jakub to make sense of what went wrong before it is too late.”
Arachnophobics may be put off by the giant spider, but Renck knew if Hanuš had a “beautiful heart and soul” , even the most arachnid-averse viewers would love him.
“I wanted Hanuš to be disgusting, revolting, scary, pathetic… but also cute and sweet, and I thought, ‘That’s gonna be a challenge.’ But what I’ve come to learn and what I understand now: no matter how revolting and scary and ugly and weirdly looking anything is… if it’s heart and soul are good, you’re gonna love it.”
Spaceman cast: Who’s in it?
The Spaceman cast includes:
- Adam Sandler as Jakub Procházka
- Paul Dano as the voice of Hanuš
- Carey Mulligan as Lenka Procházka, Jakub’s pregnant wife
- Kunal Nayyar as Peter, a technician at the Czech space port
- Lena Olin as Zdena
- Isabella Rossellini as Commissioner Tuma, Jakub’s commanding officer
Sandler isn’t a stranger to dramatic roles, but this is quite the departure. “I really like comedians in serious roles because I do think that there’s something about the fearless aspect to be a comedian that I can capitalize on,” Renck told The Hollywood Reporter.
“I did my best. He didn’t want me sounding like me, he didn’t want me making faces. It was a difficult process,” Sandler also explained.
As for Mulligan, she was drawn to the story because it “was so romantic and beautiful, and coming out of COVID, it put a different slant on everything. It was about priorities, it was about what matters to you most and not being distracted by other things and focusing on the things that matter to you.”
In an interview with Little White Lies, Dano spoke about finding the voice for Hanuš, saying he “felt a bit like a doula to me.”
“There was a sort of calm, experienced wisdom, gentle touch, some kind of spiritual guide. In our little rehearsals, I intuitively moved in that direction. I remember testing with Johan, and thinking, could it be more? But I think it felt best when it sort of lived in the simplest calmest place,” he explained.
If you think you’ve seen Nayyar before, you almost definitely have – because he played Raj in The Big Bang Theory.
Is Spaceman worth watching?
While Spaceman has a 57% score on Rotten Tomatoes, we still think it’s worth watching.
In our four-star review, we called it a “sweet Solaris riff” that “doesn’t chart new ground in sci-fi… but its message is quietly wondrous: for all that we don’t know about the universe, love is the one faith (and dream) we can all experience.”
It’s received positive reviews elsewhere, with HeyUGuys describing it as “a cosmic epic that resonates on a deeply personal level” and Empire dubbing it a “strange, heartfelt sci-fi drama” with “Sandler at his somber best.”
However, other critics have taken a harsher view of the film. “Spaceman is neither particularly astute about human nature nor discernibly interested in the politics embedded in it, and it is not even meme-ably bad, which is a shame. So much wasted potential,” The New York Times wrote.
“Dreary, sluggish sci-fi which will have most viewers banging on the doors for an escape pod,” Screen International also wrote.
Spaceman is available to stream on Netflix now. If you’re curious about when exactly it takes place, we’ve got you covered.