Love

The cinematography of this movie was beautiful. The dialogue also, especially that introductory scene, I wish there was more of it. A&A did a terrific job with the score. And the idea of the plot was also really interesting: comparing the isolation of a man deep in space who loses contact with Earth, to a soldier in the civil war hundreds of years in the past who must leave his regiment to perish.

I only wish these stories had tied together more strongly. The parallels were there, but there wasn't enough exploration. There were only a few times the astronaut is even reading the journal, and I felt that should have been the focus. Instead the two stories were tied together using a very unnecessary and bizarre deus ex machina type plot element.

That is my main complaint. My second complaint is the pacing of the movie was very irregular. I'm sure this had to do with the fact that it was made over a 4 year, inconsistent, time span.

I feel this movie had amazing potential, and obviously Will Eubank is extremely talented, but these inconsistencies took away a lot of the beauty of the movie for me.

Solitary confinement aboard a faltering space station isn't blockbuster Hollywood material. Those expecting Bay pyrotechnics will rightfully feel cheated. 'Love' is a film about the human condition, not science, and an unexpected jewel of a film.

Set in the near future, Captain Lee Miller is the first in twenty years to board the ISS space station, assigned to repair and reactivate. Early in the mission all contact with earth is lost after a final apologetic recorded message of 'things going on down here' and advice to hold tight. Interspersed with events from the American Civil War, numerically indexed testimonials and reminisces of random strangers, encroaching hallucinations and madness, 'Love' documents Lee desperately following that advice to the end as ISS fails around him.

'Love' is beautifully shot and beautifully paced. Rare today it treats every character with respect and dignity, always inclusive and never ridiculing. Emotions and reactions ring true. The dialogue is intelligent and real. The score is perfect. It demands attention, setting fleetingly on critical plot elements, not a movie that rewards distractions. A surprise future classic worth seeing.

I can't claim to have understood this film. It was very much like a mix between "Moon" and "2001: Space Odyssey". I sort of expected it to be more of a kind with the former, to be honest. I can't stand the latter. Anyway, the film was visually pleasing but I doubt I would have sat through it if not for the main actor. I also liked that they obviously didn't have the money for zero-gravity-simulation-shots but they did not let themselves be deterred by that and if you accept that there are no floating people on the ISS in this film, it's enough that they simply flipped the picture over in some shots to give the illusion of weightlessness. The story went over my head. I did not get the message at the end at all. What does all this have to do with love?! Anyway, Angel and Airwaves did well with the soundtrack. I think I'm going to listen to more of their music. So, this was a philosophical piece, almost as confusing as, but a lot more compact than Space Odyssey. Definitely Art-house material and not really suitable for light entertainment.

I was hopeful and enthusiastic to see this film but what a disappointment! I wanted to give my benefit of the doubt until the very end but, with all do respect… this film has not a single original thought or frame. Surely, for a beginner-director it may have been a triumph or even just a good effort but for any informed viewer (yet along movie buff), it's has less value than a bubble gum. Orange space suit in Victorian hotel? Really? Come on! Kubrick is spinning in his grave. We already have Space Odyssey 2001. And Moon after that. The only worthy thing was soundtrack - good atmospherics, even though mismatched at times. Sigh… Please, do make anymore of these.

Love (2011)

What a weird mixed bag of a movie. With a zinger of a misleading title.

Yes, okay, this ultimately is about what a man abandoned in the space station starts to think about--not sex (according to the movie) but love, some idealized love with a hot babe on a Malibu beach.

And oh yeah, this guy has dreams--or some kind of astral travel memories--of fighting heroically in the Civil War, surround by buff guys being equally heroic and doomed. Gradually the mental state of the one main character shifts and becomes unreliable, and dreams and daydreams become hallucinations, or perhaps some kind of actual revelation of another existence, and it gets surreal.

So the big picture is this is an overly simple movie with a couple well-worn ideas worn further and sometimes to the point of actually boredom. On that level, don't see it.

But, as is typical these days (in a good way), there are some visual and technical moments here that are amazing. Really amazing.

The first of these is a series of scenes of Civil War battles with really complex, layered, smoky, dusty clashes of men and bodies--in delicious slow motion. There's no point to these moments except the drama, but the drama is self-sufficient. They echo the best epic paintings of war of any kind.

And there are other moments with drawings that become moving pictures (again of the Civil War), and some general photography of that past era that works well. Plus the station itself is reasonably interesting, if a little awkwardly uncomfortable (compared to pictures I've seen of the real thing).

Which brings us to the final problem--there is no weightlessness. Almost the entire movie is this single man in an empty space station around Earth, and there would be zero gravity. Not a hint.

What should anyone make of all the derivative stuff here, mainly borrowing (appropriating, stealing?) from the fabulous "2001" and possibly the not-fabulous "Marooned," both from the late 1960s? I don't know. The ending here is an especially, painfully faint echo of Kubrick's great statement about the loneliness of the universe. And the slight romanticizing of this man's isolation (with his visions of a woman with lots of skin showing) reminds me of Soderbergh's romantic remake of "Solaris."

There are better movies about being lost in space.