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'Stowaway' (12)



Director: Joe Penna

Cast: Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim, Shamier Anderson, Toni Collette 

Where can I watch?: Stowaway is streaming on Netflix

Rating: 3/5

Review: Your Philosophy and Ethics classes get a spacey update in Joe Penna's tale of three Mars-bound astronauts who discover a fourth person concealed on their vessel, sapping their precious oxygen supply. It's hardly an original premise, but Stowaway offers plenty of initial promise, something of a searching character study into three individuals who felt compelled to leave their families behind and spend two years on a mission through the stars. Unfortunately, few of these expectations are ever realised, and Penna's film begins to struggle under its lack of conviction very quickly. There are plenty of themes that are touched on briefly and then dismissed; the faint crackle of remote voices from Earth appears to symbolise both the astronauts' isolation and their disconnect from society, and yet little comes from it. Commander Barnett (Toni Collette) is depicted as a skilled, level-headed leader in the opening sections, but soon crumbles into a tearful, incapable wreck without explanation - has she stared too long into the void? There is mention of this being her third mission, but it's never explored. The fact is, Stowaway was well-placed to tackle some bigger, more profound issues than it ever has the guts to study; it's a shame because the understated approach, the lack of aliens and a small set of characters makes renders it prime for unpicking some of those thought-provoking, philosophical questions. Having said that, I was kept guessing as to exactly what would happen in the final act, but even then the film fails to stick the landing in a truly emotive way. 

A Must-Watch?: Stowaway has the potential to be something really quite different, but it never quite lives up to its initial promise. Although bigger themes are touched upon, they are never fully realised, resulting in a rather unfulfilling space outing that's all surface and no substance. 

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