First Man (2018)

FIRST MAN  (2018)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Damien Chazelle
    Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke,
    Kyle Chandler, Corey Stoll, Patrick Fugit,
    Ciarán Hinds, Shea Whigham, Lukas Haas
Neil Armstrong's moonwalk on July 20, 1969, was one of those historic moments that anybody who was around back then can remember. This movie tells Armstrong's story, from his time as a test pilot flying X-15s to the voyage of Apollo 11. The space stuff is suspenseful, even if you know the history in advance, and Ryan Gosling is ideally cast as Armstrong, a technocrat whose calm, analytical approach to a tense, demanding job makes him the perfect candidate to lead a mission to the moon. It's not that he lacks emotions, it's that he doesn't show them very much, and that's become a strain on his relationship with his wife Janet, played by Claire Foy. Foy's very good, too, but her role gives her less to grab onto, and for all the screen time devoted to it, the melodrama surrounding the Armstrongs' marriage is essentially a subplot. Neil and Janet would eventually split up, and their silent encounter through a pane of glass at the end of the film contains a revealing visual clue that something between them doesn't quite connect.