A scientist, James Glaisher (Eddie Redmayne), and a balloonist, Amelia Wren (Felicity Jones), take to the skies to break the altitude record whilst also recording data that will help to predict the weather. Along the way they must face a raging storm, extreme cold, and the danger of plummeting to their deaths.
The Aeronauts is obviously intended to make the spirit soar, but rather than providing me with an uplifting experience, I was bored by the film. Once our plucky adventurers have risen above the clouds, there is nowhere interesting for the story to go. It would seem that the sky really is the limit.
The supposedly tense scenes designed to tap into one's fear of extreme heights did little to make me squirm on the edge of my seat: I couldn't help but picture Redmayne and Jones acting against a green screen for the majority of the 100 minute runtime (although it felt much longer). Numerous earth-bound flashbacks add very little to the story, but do serve to make the film even more soporific.
It's also irritating to discover that, although based on actual events, The Aeronauts seeks to rewrite history: in reality, Glaisher's pilot was one Henry Coxwell, not a pretty widow. Of course, two men in a basket wouldn't have had such cross-gender appeal.
The Aeronauts is obviously intended to make the spirit soar, but rather than providing me with an uplifting experience, I was bored by the film. Once our plucky adventurers have risen above the clouds, there is nowhere interesting for the story to go. It would seem that the sky really is the limit.
The supposedly tense scenes designed to tap into one's fear of extreme heights did little to make me squirm on the edge of my seat: I couldn't help but picture Redmayne and Jones acting against a green screen for the majority of the 100 minute runtime (although it felt much longer). Numerous earth-bound flashbacks add very little to the story, but do serve to make the film even more soporific.
It's also irritating to discover that, although based on actual events, The Aeronauts seeks to rewrite history: in reality, Glaisher's pilot was one Henry Coxwell, not a pretty widow. Of course, two men in a basket wouldn't have had such cross-gender appeal.