The Space Between Us

Perhaps it’s appropriate that The Space Between Us feels like it comes from another planet.

This coming-of-age drama, about a human boy who was born on Mars and ventures to Earth for the first time, is a science-fiction saga, a journey of self-discovery, a high school romantic comedy and a road-trip adventure that doesn’t commit itself to any of those concepts with much conviction.

Taking a page from the Elon Musk playbook, the film theorizes about the ramifications of a space shuttle mission to colonize Mars sometime in the near future — validating the dream of a scientist (Gary Oldman) who oversaw the project.

Only after takeoff does one of the astronauts (Carla Gugino) reveal that she’s pregnant. Without revealing the identity of the father, she dies during childbirth. Her son is subsequently raised by her colleagues in the colony on the Red Planet.

Flash forward 16 years, and Gardner (Asa Butterfield) is a precocious teenager with a sheltered upbringing who dreams of visiting Earth. When that desire becomes reality, he finds that social awkwardness is only part of the challenge as he attempts to track down an online pen pal (Britt Robertson) and ultimately find his father.

The film requires an outrageous suspension of disbelief in a strained attempt to be poignant and profound. Yet achieving that desired emotional resonance requires at least minimal grounding in reality, rather than this series of eye-rolling contrivances and forced character quirks.

The screenplay by Allan Loeb (Collateral Beauty) tries to juggle several ideas with little success, and has the annoying tendency to dip into high-minded subject matter without offering much explanation. How exactly would a human born at zero gravity function on our planet? Who knows, but at least he tracks down the girl of his dreams with minimal effort.

The film hints at some potentially intriguing ideas regarding the space program, life in the cosmos, or even surrogate family dynamics, but the heavy-handed approach of director Peter Chelsom (Shall We Dance) dispenses with any subtlety in favor of cheap sentimentality.

There are some visual highlights along the way, along with a capable lead performance by Butterfield (Hugo) that makes the material more touching than it probably should be. Yet this intra-galactic martian family reunion deserves to be lost in space.

Rated PG-13, 121 minutes.