Review: The Aeronauts (TIFF 2019)

PLOT: In 1860’s England, gas balloon pilot Amelia Wren (Felicity Jones) is enlisted by scientist James Glaisher (Eddie Redmayne) in an attempt to break the world flight altitude record.

REVIEW: THE AERONAUTS is going to be an Amazon Prime exclusive towards the end of the year following a short theatrical window, something that’s costing the film the premium IMAX screens it was originally slated for. This is a real shame, as the movie was apparently filmed with IMAX cameras, and certainly, even in traditional theatrical showings (such as those that occurred at TIFF), THE AERONAUTS cries out to be seen on as big a screen as possible.

Directed by WILD ROSE’s Tom Harper, this re-unites THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING co-stars in another fact-based drama, albeit a much less somber once designed more to provoke thrills than garner any acting awards. It’s the prestige version of a tent-pole movie. Perhaps a better description for this would be to say it’s based on a “true-ish” story, with Eddie Redmayne’s Glaisher a real guy, while Jones’s Wren is a combination of a few female pioneers of the time. She wasn’t with him when he made his record-breaking ascent, but then again, one should never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Sure enough, this is a fun romp, with the two leads having strong chemistry, while overall it’s a pretty family-friendly tale, so much so that in some ways this felt like a lost Disney film from the sixties, back when they made movies like SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON. Jones plays against type as the more boisterous half of the duo, eager to put on a show for her adoring fans, while the taciturn Glaisher is all business. Their relationship believably evolves, which is saying something as Hopper uses a real-time technique, driving home the fact that the ascent, as dangerous as it was, only lasted an hour and change.

This gives it a cool ticking clock vibe, with the two never far away from danger, whether it’s Wren being swept over the side and being dragged by the balloon, or the balloon malfunctioning, requiring a daring fix by Wren with the heights so believably conveyed it’ll cause vertigo for some. The CGI is terrific, while the running time is padded out, slightly, by some flashbacks showing an earlier tragedy in Wren’s career involving her late husband (French star Vincent Perez in a cameo) and her problems in Victorian society as a liberated woman. YESTERDAY breakout star Himesh Patel also has a brief role as Redmayne’s confidant on the ground below, although he doesn’t get much to do besides nervously check his stop-watch and squint through a telescope and pair of binoculars.

While it’s certainly designed as an empowering, this is first and foremost an adventure picture as we watch the two battle the elements to survive. It’s a prestige production with some premium eye candy, incredible (and loud!) sound design and a dynamic score by Steven Price, with the film as a whole being reminiscent of one he worked on, GRAVITY. While most of us won’t have a chance to see it in theaters (I'd love to see the full-blown IMAX version), it’s one of Amazon’s biggest productions ever, and one that could help level the playing field between them at Netflix. Check it out when it hits Prime later this year.