User reviews

I truly wanted to love this movie, on the exterior it looked amazing, it had a promising plot, amazing actors and the creator of the Fargo tv series Noah Hawley on the director's chair.

What could possibly go wrong?

Interesting plot wasted on total boredom, pretty sure that they got some of the science wrong and despite some amazing acting from Natalie Portman, Ellen Burstyn, Jon Hamm, etc. And good cinematography, they couldn't unfortunately save this forgettable mess.

In short: An Oscar-bait movie that you will forget the day after.

"Lucy In the Sky" (2019 release; 124 min.) brings the story of Lucy. As the movie opens, Lucy is doing a space walk near the International Space Station, where the Shuttle has brought the astronauts. Lucy is overwhelmed by the experience. Upon returning to earth, we get to know her husband who also works at NASA. It becomes clear very quickly that Lucy is having a hard time readjusting to life on earth, her husband calling it suffering from "rocketlag".Meanwhile Lucy feels a special bond with Mark, who also has flown on the Space Shuttle... At this point we are 10 min. into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the first feature-length from debut director Noah Hawley, best known for his TV work including "Fargo". Here he brings a story to the screen that is "Inspired by real events", as we are informed at the beginning of the movie. Indeed, the story reminds of the real life story of astronaut Lisa Nowak, who did a space mission with the Shuttle in 2006 (can't tell you more as it would spoil your viewing experience). Let's be clear: "Lucy In the Sky" is NOT a space movie a la the recent "Ad Astra" or "Gravity" a few years ago. In fact, there are only a few scenes set in space, with a total screen time of about 5 minutes. The movie tells us what happens to Lucy AFTER she returns back to earth. In that sense, the movie's marketing campaign and trailer is completely misleading, I'm sorry to say. Natalie Portman as Lucy does the best that she can in what is a challenging script, certainly in the movie's first hour. If you wonder whether the movie contains the Beatles song "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds", it does (covered by Lisa Hannigan). I noticed in the end credits that Reece Witherspoon is one of the producers. One definitive positive is the movie's original score, an orchestral instrumental composed by Jeff Russo, and one I plan on checking out further.

"Lucy In the Sky" premiered to negative criticism at last month's Toronto International Film Festival, and has remained under clouds ever since. After opening in a few cities last weekend, the movie rolled out to more cities this weekend, and opened on 3 screens for all of Greater Cincinnati (population: 2.5 million). The Sunday early evening screening where I saw this at here in Cincinnati turned out to be a private screening, as I was literally the only person in the theater. In short: this movie has bombed completely at the box office, and I can't see it getting a much wider (or longer) theater run. I was aware of the negative reviews and criticisms going into the theater today, and hence my expectations were low, very low indeed. Hence I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't a complete disaster, and the 2 hours flew by pretty quickly. If you are interested in a flawed yet worthwhile character study (and then some), I'd suggest you check this out, be it in the theater (doubtful at this point), on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

Deep character studies can make fantastic films if you have a great performance behind the character. Movies about post-traumatic stress can add a level of drama that a lot of films simply can't. In the case of Lucy in the Sky, this is a film that deals with both for the entire duration. So, what went wrong here? This movie is proof that not every true story will make a worthwhile feature film. This is one of the worst films of the year.

Following Lucy (Natalie Portman) as she arrives back on Earth after a mission in space, a combination of wishing to go back and not wanting the life she original had begins to take her over. Not only does could that set-up lend itself to a fascinating character study, but I would have preferred it to not be a true story. As I said, this story doesn't have enough depth to lend itself to a full feature film. After setting up where this character has been and where she is now, Lucy in the Sky has nowhere to go.

Natalie Portman is completely committed to this character and is easily the biggest saving grace of this film. On top of her great performance, there is a very unique way this film is presented. With aspect ration constantly changing throughout the film, it felt like a neat little experiment to have the shape of the screen feel like it was how Lucy was feeling in the moment. Sadly, both of these elements deserved a better film to be a part of. Never once I feel that this was a great character being explored, but rather just a great character, not being explored enough, placed in a terrible film.

I could try to find positives in the fact that the space sequences are beautiful to look at in terms of visual effects, but those sequences end after the first five minutes. The addition of performers like Jon Hamm or Zazie Beetz should normally feel like an elevation, but they're ultimately underused. The climax of this film felt like it should have taken place toward the middle of the movie, because it wasn't all that exciting and like the rest of the movie, pretty much goes nowhere and makes you question what the point of this movie even was.

I'm not one who usually bashed on a film, because I like to see the good in most movies, but it's very difficult when a director like Noah Hawley, who I have loved on many television projects, chooses a poor first outing for his feature film debut. After watching this film at the Toronto International Film Festival, it became the first film that I've ever seen at a festival that I straight-up disliked. There are saving graces when it comes to Natalie Portman, the visual presentation, and even the direction by Noah Hawley, in terms of getting great performances out of everyone, but this is one of the weakest stories that I've seen on the big screen in years.

I have to agree with most of the reviewers on here, this movie didn't deliver at all. I had high expectations, was hoping for a decent sci-fi movie but instead I got a quite boring drama. I wouldn't say the actors were bad, far from that, Natalie Portman and the rest did their job, but the story was just weak, certainly for the first half of the movie. The movie was also much too long, certainly for the story they wanted to tell. I wouldn't waste too much time on this one if I were you.

This movie is a solid 7.5. It's a solid study of a character's mind unwinding. Perhaps a few of the directorial decisions were unwise but I see no way in which they undermined the movie to the extent that it is a 36 metacritic/22 rotten tomatoes. It is honestly baffling to me. The garbage I have seen get positive ratings and this gets that? It honestly boggles the mind.

It is a promising first movie from the very talented Noah Hawley and I seriously hope the bizarre reaction to this movie does not hamper his future career. I love movies and tv that are different and interesting and Noah Hawley is in the highest league of talent in that area.

Lucy in the Sky is inspired by true events in the most artificial sense. Telling the story of an Astronaut dealing her own sanity. The film means well. It clearly has something to say, but I fails to give anything to us in a meaningful way.

Natalie Portman gives it her all, playing a character that is losing herself and has a lot of emotional baggage. She's terrific, but sadly the rest of the film is not. Lucy in the Sky is a miscalculated mess, with so many things in it and so little as well that it's hard to remain engaged.

The movie feels empty, emotionless and very dull. The only thing of visual interest are when then the aspect ratio of the film changes throughout the film. We go from 4:3 to 16:9 and more. The screen shrinks grows and it all seems based on how our character is feeling at the time. It's interesting, but proves to be a large distraction.

The film ultimately has nothing to really offer. There's no incite, no intrigue and it's ultimately empty. Natalie Portman does her best as do the rest of the cast, but it ends up just being a failed film with good ideas executed poorly.

The plot is just boring and doesn't go anywhere. Lucy's life and experiences aren't interesting, and I have no interest in the plot at all. I don't see the point of this film. What a huge waste of Natalie and Jon.

This movie generated some pretty negative vibes even before its release, and I myself was caught up in that - the trailer looked absolutely awful, with its hackneyed drama and Natalie Portman's ridiculous sounding southern drawl. The fact that it was based on a real-life story somehow made it seem worse, as if the film was exploiting an actual astronaut who'd suffered a mental breakdown.

I ended up watching it on the plane - twice. It's one of those situations where you've got nothing to lose, so heck, let's see if it's as bad as it looked. (The second time, on the return trip, I wanted to confirm my reaction or see if I'd had one too many tiny bottles of vodka the first time around.) And guess what? It's not! It's really not! It is, in fact, pretty good, especially if you're already a fan of Portman and Jon Hamm and you like movies about space and our place in it (which this indirectly is, or tries to be).

For one thing, it's much more sympathetic to the real-life Lisa Nowak (whose name is oddly changed to Lucy Cola in the film) than the marketing made it seem. It's far from exploitative, but neither is it an exoneration - it is simply an explanation, and that's about the best anyone could have done with this story. Lucy is someone that a lot of stuff happens to - more than most people - and it all makes her question who she is and what she's doing here. But her actions at the end of the film - the infamous act that made national headlines - are left open-ended in terms of her true motivation and what she was really trying to do.

It is a strange film in that it starts very weakly, and it probably lost about half the audience within the first couple scenes. The first scene feels like a complete ripoff of Gravity's opening, minus the excitement. Then Portman's drawl kicks in, which is just jarring at first - though as the film goes on, I began to realize it was really my expectations that were the problem rather than her performance. (You just don't expect her to sound like that.) In fact, she's quite good throughout the film; her performance builds, and you start to notice all the little things she's doing. Facial expressions, nervous tics, etc.

Lots of people have made jokes about the movie omitting the diapers from the final scene. Know why they did that? Because it didn't happen. It was made up by the media. No doubt, so were a lot of other things in this movie for dramatic effect, so what's one more, right? But that would have pushed the film over the edge into exploitation and rumor-mongering, and maybe even slander. (The film outright claims in a title card to be based on true events; it's not pretending to be fictional.) I was actually glad that they omitted that little factoid.

The film does have its share of flaws, the biggest being that it's ponderous at times, and it has a sense of self-importance that it doesn't really deserve. It is at heart a family drama that happens to involve an astronaut, and that's what makes it interesting and different. But it tries hard at various points to make the story bigger than it is - it's a systemic NASA issue, it's sexism, it's something that changes inside everyone when they see how small and insignificant humanity is, and she just couldn't handle it. All of these things probably played some role for the real Lisa Nowak, but the bottom line is that she was just a person who was an astronaut who had a breakdown. If the film had stayed a little more down to earth and personal, it would have done better. But it's still worth watching, and it doesn't deserve the hate it's gotten.

Everything was barely acceptable up until the hardware store scene, where she buys a hammer, a knife, ropes AND A WIG all items together in the same shelf of a hardware store!!! A woman's wig??? Come on, man!

These things get me out of the movie.

Profound and respectful portrayal of a person's fall into obsession and dysfunction after completing the pinnacle achievement of her life's pursuit only to lose purpose and meaning in everything else. Illustration of the psychological struggles and self destructive depths other historical champions might have endured such as George Eastman and Meriwether Lewis, not in the movie. Ms Portman's swagger, cougar gait and neurotic episodes were performed perfectly. I couldn't think of anything else while watching, which is the kind of movie experience I'm looking for.

Weird little movie but I liked it. Mostly down to Natalie Portman who acts her ass off as her mind unravels. Enjoyed her a lot. However the way its been filmed, aspect, ratio and blurry at times on the bottom of the screen as if looking through a bottle had me thinking my vison was playing tricks on me or I was having a wee stroke. Didn't enjoy that and it took me out of the movie as I searched for the baby aspirin.

Interesting, based on true story, which follows astronaut Lucy Cola, who after a life altering experience into deep space must return to earth and reintegrate into everyday life, i.e. Her dull husband, marriage and day to day boredom. Soon Lucy's cosmic experience begin to take a toll on her connection to the real world .

Good cast, Jon Hamm as playboy astronaut, Ellen Burstyn as drinking, smoking, f-bombing grandma. Many other familiar faces. The space program seems pretty relaxed with all the drinking and showing up when you want sorta thing.

This movie is just really painful. I wanted to walk out a few times. The story is just lame and a real mess. Portman does a decent job in the role... but the movie doesn't know what it is or what to do with it's actors. In the end I didn't care at all about the characters and the story just didn't' go anywhere.

Seemed like it might be interesting... but ended up being just a bit waste of time.

Can't say much about this, Portman's accent is almost as bad a s the wig she wears in it, (apologies if its not a wig,)

disappointed was hoping for more.

We look for anything over 5/10 to at least make it pass some of the many hours pass during our extended time at home, this is where we draw the line of Passable, anything below this we would not recommend as it would be better to paint a wall then watch it dry.

The real story behind this film is so much more interesting, along with the actual people involved. This easily could have been an engaging study of the real woman, instead of the vague cypher that camera tricks do nothing to explain or enhance.

NASA should be apologized to by Hollywood!!! Boring is far too inadequate describe this hour and a half of my life that I will never get back.

Her acting is stilted. It's a very boring movie. Not just boring but also NOT a sci-fi or a thriller. Her haircut is just awful to look at. Her fake accent just grates on your ears. I just hated this movie the longer I watched it. 42 minutes was all I could take.

I didn't like her as a person, not helped by the performance... I didn't sympathise with anything going on in her life either. I appreciate the telling of a person suffering from unique mental health issues, slowly but surely spiralling out of control, but that's the only aspect I feel was even remotely interesting.

4.5/10 - meh

Based on real life events - astronaut Lisa Nowak's criminal activities around her relationship with fellow astronaut William Oefelein in 2006 - 2007 - and altered into the present form by writers Brian C. Brown, Elliott DiGuiseppi and director Noah Hawley, LUCY IN THE SKY is a controversial film. While the messages are mixed, one interesting idea rises: does space travel transiently or even permanently change thought perceptions, thinking and behavior?

Lucy Cola (Natalie Portman) is a strong woman whose determination and drive as an astronaut take her to space, where she's deeply moved by the transcendent experience of seeing her life from afar. Back home as Lucy's world suddenly feels too small, her connection with reality slowly unravels, as her marriage to Drew Cola (Dan Stevens) and her love affair with Mark Goodwin (John Hamm), and the death of her cocky mother (Ellen Burstyn) implode. Lucy communicates with space, gets lost in words, and isn't able to cope, leading to dire circumstances.

The highlight of this overly long film is the CGI effects in space. While Natalie Portman shines as the very strange Lucy her obtrusive artificial accent and communication diminish her credibility as a character about whom we can care. Some good ideas her, but the film simply dissolves - drifting off into space...

You've experienced this before. You keep thinking, hoping, that this will get better if you just watch a bit longer, and it just keeps tanking, embarrassingly into the abyss. What a mess of a movie.

Misleading barely a space movie more of drama about the aftermath from when Lucy was in space at the beginning of the movie. A spiral of emotions throughout, a little odd and misunderstood! Natalie Portman is an incredible actress regardless of the flaws! Great cinematography and drama; sure it could've been better but I see what Noah Hawley tried to do.

A Deep Dark psychological ride. Based on true events, Natalie Portman stars as astronaut Lucy Cola who comes home from a Space Mission and sort of loses her mind from Jealousy. Check out the trailer. Natalie is well supported acting wise and bet her Costume Designer is up for some awards. Really cute outfits. Lucy also has an fascination with Butterflys and Bees, they are her go to when tripping out and light up the screen in close ups. If you happen to frequent the San Diego Intl Airport like me, you'll get a surprise.

This is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Made worse by the possibilities the storyline offered. It seems the movie was pieced together the way a comic sometimes has a clever punchline and has to craft a set up. They had this title and said "it's too good not to use" ... then they set about making this mess of a movie.