SummaryLucy Cola (Natalie Portman) is a strong woman whose determination and drive as an astronaut take her to space, where she’s deeply moved by the transcendent experience of seeing her life from afar. Back home as Lucy’s world suddenly feels too small, her connection with reality slowly unravels.
Directed By:Noah Hawley
Written By:Brian C. Brown, Elliott DiGuiseppi, Noah Hawley
Lucy in the Sky
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
36
User score
Mixed or Average
4.7
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Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
36
6% Positive
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
56% Mixed
20 Reviews
20 Reviews
39% Negative
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
User score
Mixed or Average
4.7
18% Positive
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
58% Mixed
19 Ratings
19 Ratings
24% Negative
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
Jan 15, 2021
9
Lucy in the Sky alerts the audience that the film is inspired by real events, but there is very little of those events in this movie, thankfully. On the one hand we have an astronaut, Lisa Nowak, whose career is paved by brilliant successes, she is the flagship of NASA and an example of female emancipation to look upon with admiration, until the tragic moment when she loses her mind because of a love affair and shows one side of her personality that is not quite edifying: she cheats on her husband with a colleague who is also married, then when he ditches her for another woman she tries to kidnap - and perhaps kill? - the new flame of her ex lover. A crime story mainly remembered for the embarrassing detail of the diapers used by the woman in order to drive without having to stop, during the 900 miles towards the destination of her criminal project. From hero to zero in the blink of an eye. On the other hand, the movie's protagonist is portrayed as a victim: of an almost exclusively male professional world and of a lover who does not treat her with respect and even jeopardizes her work. The astronaut depicted on the screen, played by a magnificent Natalie Portman, is a figure to look at with compassion, a bright star that inexorably collapses under our eyes piece by piece: initially splendid in her space suit, pathetic rag doll with a ridiculous blonde wig at the end, as she attempts to attack her ex boyfriend. In between, the dream of flying, shared by both the real and the imaginary protagonists, rendered on the screen with delicate and poetic touches by director Noah Hawley. A broken dream, which is powerfully symbolized by the scene of a cocoon from which emerges not a butterfly but a gruesome handful of flies. But there is more than space missions out there, and our heroine will end finding a purpose in the microcosm of a bee farm (and how similar to a spacesuit is the beekeeping suit!)
Oct 3, 2019
50
Instead of being an intriguing look at an emotional breakdown, “Lucy” is more interested in being a sporadically trippy (and ultimately forgettable) soap opera that by the end has the camp factor of your average Lifetime revenge thriller.
Oct 4, 2019
40
It’s always a downer when talented artists pour everything they’ve got into a film that stubbornly refuses to come to life. That’s the case with Lucy in the Sky.
Oct 3, 2019
38
Sorta-kinda based on the true story of astronaut Lisa Nowak, Noah Hawley’s directorial debut may have started out as a feminist-forward film decrying the fact that women have to work five times as hard to succeed in the workplace, but it ends up being a movie whose message boils down to, “Ladies be crazy.”
Oct 4, 2019
25
But throwing fairy dust in our eyes can’t make us think we’ve entered Fairy Land. It just takes a lowdown tale and inflates it until it bursts.
Oct 3, 2019
0
It’s around the halfway point when this film’s pointlessness begins to truly shine.
Oct 6, 2019
5
What starts out as a promising tale of personal discovery regrettably turns hard to believe, almost campy, in the second half. Despite the film's fact-based nature, its story line degenerates into an overwritten, overacted debacle that almost becomes laughable at times, the otherwise-fine performance of Natalie Portman notwithstanding. Truly a missed opportunity to tell a story with some depth and meaning in an unlikely setting.
Dec 21, 2019
4
It was an interesting premise that doesn't land all its ideas. Undoubtedly Natalie Portman was committed to the role but the rest is quite inconsequential, which was a shame because I really wanted to like this one.
Jun 18, 2021
3
(Mauro Lanari)
In 1877 Tolstoy wrote that "this whole world of ours is only a speck of mildew sprung up on a tiny planet" ("Anna Karenina", IV, VII). Unbelievable but true, such a consideration never required references to real facts of the 2000s and even less to the experience of a NASA astronaut. "It's cortisol, oxytocin, dopamine. It's a trick. It's like believing in God." Cool.
Feb 1, 2021
3
I saw someone online say this is better than 'Interstellar', and that statement alone nearly made me hurl. Like, in what way is this boring drivel better? I watched this on a plane last year, before the COVID outbreak where you could go anywhere, good times. Anywhere, even on a flight journey this couldn't hold my interest. I liked the TV show 'Legion', a show created by Noah Hawley, but man his directing here is so terrible. Every choice he made was the worst. The number of times the aspect ratio keeps changing I thought I was watching 'Transformers: The Last Knight' again.
Oct 15, 2019
2
Lucy in the Sky starts off okay, but quickly devolves into a lazy, try-hard story about a woman who is losing her mind. Natalie Portman is good, but the rest of the movie isn't. Don't waste your time here.
Production Company:
- Fox Searchlight Pictures
- 26 Keys Productions
Release Date:Oct 4, 2019
Duration:2 h 4 m
Rating:R
Awards
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA
• 3 Nominations
Alliance of Women Film Journalists
• 1 Nomination
