Director Tom Harper follows up his delightful country western via Glasgow drama Wild Rose with a very different brew; a period drama that takes a look at the pioneering days of meteorology, and a fight for survival thousands of feet in the sky.
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Eddie Redmayne stars as James Glaisher, a meteorologist who believes that the weather can be predicted. Often ridiculed for his seemingly outlandish theories by his peers, James seeks to head up on an expedition in a hot air balloon to put his theories to the test. But he’ll need a pilot. That’s where daredevil pilot and entertainer Amelia Wren (Felicity Jones) enters the picture.
After clearly enjoying their time together to award winning success in The Theory of Everything, the reunion of Redmayne and Jones will surely be cause for celebration amongst their fans. While it is a shame that it comes in the telling of a story in which Jones’s character is entirely fictional and true historical figures have been written out of the pioneering history being depicted on the screen (I’m sure there’s plenty of unsung female heroes of science who deserve a film?), there’s a fair deal of pleasure to be taken from their big screen reunion.
It is likely that you can already predict what type of film you’re getting from The Aeronauts just from taking a glance at its poster, and in all likelihood it will more than meet your expectations. This is a handsome period drama that’s quite content to be fairly undemanding as it goes about its hot air business, at least that’s the case when its feet are planted on the ground.
Faced with the task of dramatising a journey which did only take a little over an hour to complete, the film cuts back and forth from James and Amelia in the air as they take their readings and contend with the forces of nature that await them in the sky, to moments back on the ground in which we see the two planning and overcoming their respective obstacles to eventually lead to a groundbreaking partnership. There’s nothing particularly deep or profound in the characterisations of James and Amelia, with screenwriter Jack Thorne largely relying on broad period drama cliches in his strokes of character, from grieving widows to class struggles and rigid patriarchal establishments. It means that whenever we do land back down to Earth, it is more often than not with a thud and a sense that it is essentially just padding to fill out the central narrative.
Where the film does truly excel is in its depiction of James and Amelia’s mission amongst the clouds. With airtight technical wizardry at his disposal, Harper looks to the likes of Gravity when it comes to inspiration for constructing many a moment of high altitude peril that are particularly dizzying and vertigo-inducing in IMAX. As the balloon gets higher, so do the stakes, with their minds becoming oxygen deprived and the cold temperatures making an already difficult task that much harder. There’s many a moment up in the skies that are both tense (a climb up the balloon that Amelia does is heart in your throat stuff) and quietly stunning, with some truly quite beautiful pockets of imagery amongst some of the chaos that does ensue.
It is also these moments contained within the wicker hamper that the performances of Redmayne and Jones really come to life. Whereas Redmayne’s role may seem like the sort he always seem to be typecast into (bookish and awkward) his relationship with Jones’s Amelia allows for his depiction of James Glashier to come across as warm and driven by a desire to break ground and further humankind’s understanding for the better. Jones initially seems a little miscast as the energetic show-woman, but as it becomes more and more of a survival movie, she shows a real sense of grit and determination within a very physically demanding performance.
The Aeronauts is more than content in being that breed of film that you can rely upon on a rainy Sunday afternoon, one which will quite happily trade on period drama cliches in a story that’s ultimately quite sincere and charming. This winning formula is helped a great deal by a sharp sense of scale and involving action in the moments up in the air, with the gorgeous visual effects and immersive sound design proving to be the stars of the show of this tale loosely inspired by real life pioneers.
The Aeronauts opens in cinemas on 8th November.
