Mission to Mars

There is a short story by Ray Bradbury in which a space walk ends in disaster. The astronauts drift slowly away from one another into the void, radio contact between them slowly crackling into silence. It is a deeply moving story, and like much of Bradbury's fiction it focuses on the humanity of its situation, not the science. 'Mission to Mars' brings this story to mind for two reasons. Not only because one of its scenes is strikingly similar, but because this scene and all those that follow it share Bradbury's humanity. It is that rare thing amongst science fiction films - a film with a heart.

'Mission to Mars' was almost universally derided on its release, due to its derivative story elements, weak script and plodding pace. True, the film has all these flaws, and the terrific cinematography and Ennio Moriccone score don't draw your attention away from them. The plot, concerning the establishing of alien contact on mars, is clumsy and disjointed. The dialogue is clunky, and events unfold so unevenly that their timescale is at times hard to follow. And it is so derivative that it seems at times as though the scriptwriters have simply grabbed a dozen other scripts and pulled the pages randomly from a hat.

Yet, despite all its flaws, I have a soft spot for this movie. The aforementioned scene in which husband and wife drift silently and tearfully apart is terribly romantic, the kind of plot development that leaves you wondering why such traumatic events are necessary in the overall scheme of things. And in the latter half of the film de Palma provides reassurance with an optimistic vision of humankind's place in the universe, directing proceedings with a genuine sense of wonderment. The relationships between the characters are sensitively portrayed, and with its philosophical ponderings on the implications of establishing alien contact, 'Mission to Mars' has an old fashioned, naive charm about it which I can't help love.