Proxima
Directed by Alice Winocour
Written by Alice Winocour and Jean-Stéphane Bron
Starring Eva Green, Matt Dillon, Zélie Boulant, Lars Eidinger and Zélie Boulant
Language: English, French
Running time:1 hour and 47 minutes
by Audrey Callerstrom
If we were still seeing films in theaters, Proxima would be a safe bet for a wintry Saturday afternoon. It’s a small, quiet film that has conflict, but emotions never run high. You enjoy where it takes you and what it shows you, even if it might not stay with you very long. Sarah (Eva Green), a French engineer, has finally been given the opportunity to go into space, a dream of hers ever since she was a little girl. Sarah is separated from her ex, Thomas (Lars Eidinger) and they co-parent their eight-year-old Stella (Zélie Boulant). Although supporting characters orbit around the story, including cocky American astronaut Mike (Matt Dillon), the film belongs to mother and daughter. Not only will Sarah be separated from Stella for one year while she is on the Proxima Mission, but before then, Sarah must endure grueling exercises and training in order to prepare. She must be isolated for three weeks, and quarantine thereafter. Sarah doesn’t get a proper goodbye. She gets Facetime, she gets phone calls. She’ll miss milestones, celebrations, hardships, accomplishments and at least one birthday.
Sarah never struggles with the decision whether to go on the mission, and Stella is otherwise prepared for it (or at least, she says she is). They say that children are natural actors, always playing pretend. Every moment is new to them and not in the way they are new or you to me. Zélie Boulant gives an understated performance, showing us a quiet kid, an introverted daydreamer, in control of her emotions. The film doesn’t try to devise any situations where a character gives a meaningful speech or otherwise tries to drive viewers to tears, which it certainly could. It’s all played very matter-of-factly. We see two dynamics balancing out here exceptionally well, largely due to writer/director Alice Winocour, who made the 2015 Oscar-nominated and critic favorite Mustang. The primary one is Sarah’s preparation to spend a year of her life in space away from her only child. The other dynamic is what happens inside the training center between Sarah and her crewmates Mike and Anton (Aleksey Fateev). It’s a boy’s club. Mike jokingly undermines her credentials, calling her a “space tourist,” suggesting a lighter preparation schedule. Sarah storms out. The other crew members don’t have to answer questions about whether they want to menstruate in space, or hear suggestions that it would be easier to have shorter hair during the mission.
I don’t think this film is about mom guilt, that would be an oversimplification. But it is about how the experience of going into space and being away from family is different for Sarah then it is, for example, the men in Apollo 13. Mike talks about his two sons as though he understands Sarah’s experience. We know, and see, that he’s not their primary caretaker, whereas Sarah clearly is for Stella. “You have to cut the cord,” he tells Sarah as she chases after Stella. The sting of that statement. Green has strong conviction as a determined astronaut and devoted mother, never crumbling under the circumstances. It might not be a performance that Green fans will relish as much as her dark, otherworldly characters, but it’s earnest and shows her versatility. We see her devotion to Stella as much as we see her fascination and excitement preparing for the mission. It’s a physically and psychologically taxing process. Underwater rescue simulations, doctor exams, persistent cardio to make sure that Sarah’s heart rate always stays within a certain range.
Winocour never gives us an idea of who Sarah is outside of her circumstances. We take, at face value, her story about wanting to be an astronaut ever since she was little. We see Mike take Sarah to the supermarket where Sarah’s face is sold on souvenir magnets, but she never seems to enjoy the spotlight. We don’t have a sense of who Sarah was before the point where the film begins. Arguably, both Sarah and Stella could have been nameless figures, Mother and Daughter, and it might have served the story a little better. Films about travelling into space usually come with Big Emotions, moments of life or death: Gravity, The Martian. Proxima is more distant, succinct, focused on the process of preparation. Images of real-life astronauts who are also mothers play during the end credits. Proxima is still a sweet film, even if the characters are surface-level and it doesn’t strive for the beats we might expect with a story of this emotional magnitude.
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