Jean-Paul’s rating: 4/5 stars

Bottom Line: A unique retelling of the United States’ attempts to put a man on the moon. Beautiful and awe inspiring.

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the first men to reach past our atmosphere. Their mission: to boldly test the limits of engineering and science and the human body with the goal of being the first people to set foot on the moon.

“First Man” tells the story of the Space Race almost solely from the perspective of Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) and his wife, Janet (Claire Foy). This gives the movie a very personal touch. You get a real feel for what it’s like to be an astronaut and a real feel for what it’s like to be an astronaut’s wife. Neither is easy. The movie starts with the Armstrongs taking care of their young daughter, Karen, who has cancer and ends with Neil walking alone on the moon and leaving a little keepsake for eternity. In between these bookends are all the trials and tribulations that the Armstrong family goes through to get to that first moon landing. Neil is loving, but distant. Claire is strong and loving and the glue that binds the family together.

This is a solidly acted movie all around. Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy acting opposite each other is a delight. It is not easy to stand out in Ryan Gosling’s acting shadow, but Claire Foy shows that her shadow is equally as large and her ability to portray nuanced emotion is a wonder to behold. They are backed up by a solid ensemble of supporting actors including Jason Clarke as Ed White who was about the closest thing to a friend that Neil Armstrong had.

It is a bit strange watching this movie if you know the history. Going to space is a fairly dangerous occupation and this is all in the past. You see the lives of these men who you know are going to die and you know when they’re going to die and you are then at the scene when you know they will die and yet you feel that maybe, just maybe they’ll be able to avert their fate.

The mood of the movie is set wonderfully by the music. Space scenes are an homage to “2001: A Space Odyssey”. And I would never in a million years think that I would utter these words, but the music also makes effective use of a theremin. The theremin brings out this haunting sadness in the music that I would never have imagined possible for such a revolting instrument.

I am guessing that the people who would like this movie fall into two camps: those who like space history and those who like Ryan Gosling. The Venn diagram of those two is probably one giant circle for Ryan Gosling and one tiny circle for space history with the space history circle being almost entirely subsumed by Ryan Gosling’s circle. Which is as it should be. We are all just living in Ryan Gosling’s world.