After playing an astronaut marooned on a deserted planet last year in Interstellar, Matt Damon takes on the role of Mark Watney this year in Ridley Scott’s The Martian, where he plays an astronaut marooned on a deserted planet. This seems like a winning strategy; Interstellar made $675 million internationally last year; The Martian has grossed $381 million internationally in the one month since it’s been open and is predicted to be Ridley Scott’s highest grossing movie yet (which made over $400 million). This performance by Damon, though, far outshined his work in Interstellar and should get him on track for a Best Actor nomination at the Academy Awards.
Damon is charged with a difficult task, portraying the complex emotions of a man left alone while being completely alone in almost every scene. Without having a partner on stage to play off of, it is hard to depict emotions. Damon brings his character to life with humor, humanity, resilience and a winning smile that oozes charisma.
His sarcastic comments bashing the objects his colleagues left behind including disco music, TV shows and a small Jesus statue (that Damon burns in order to create water) provides the audience with some comedic relief while the protagonist is stranded alone on a planet with almost no chance of living. His humanity emerges in the scene where he realizes that NASA has not told his crew that he is still alive and his face just falls, or when his entire crop is frozen over by a storm which breaks up home on Mars. His resilience is visible as he is constantly coming up with new plans in order to feed himself and get himself to the loading dock to meet the spaceship. Though at times his knowledge seems a bit too unrealistic, Damon’s winning personality carries the audience through those questioning moments.
What helps Damon carry the movie is the use of vlogging and the parallel scenes with NASA. Damon keeps a video log of the day and its events that he films in his base. This allows him, under the guise of keeping the log, to keep the audience updated as to what’s happening and how much time has elapsed. Though sometimes it feels like he is over-explaining the scene and not letting the viewers figure out enough for themselves, it helps move the plot along and provide comic relief.
For example, Watney explains how he grows his potato crop on Mars over the vlog. If he didn’t, it would go completely over the moviegoer’s head. Another technique that the movie uses is juxtapose scenes of Watney with those of NASA. One watches them find out that the space shuttle leaves without Watney, and when they decide not to tell the crew that they realized that Watney is alive. Watching Watney know things that NASA doesn’t and NASA knowing things that Watney doesn’t creates a disconnect between the audience–who knows everything — and the movie — where people are in the dark. This allows for nice foreshadowing which keeps the moviegoer anxious to find out when the other side will learn this crucial information.
Another major appeal of this movie is the incredible CGI effects and the cinematography. The movie takes place on Mars so everything needs to be created by incredible animators who do a phenomenal job making the planet look majestic, surreal but incredibly plausible at the same time. While watching it, the audience can truly imagine themselves on Mars. The red-orange mountains and deserts look beautiful especially in IMAX and makes every scene incredibly compelling. The cinematography goes up another level when there’s a scene of Watney and his crew in space. There are large, sweeping images of Watney suspended in space that seem so realistic and beautiful at the same time. The use of the camera makes the viewer appreciation the majesty and vastness of space and fear for Watney being left all alone there to die.
While the movie may be a little too box office friendly to win an Oscar for Best Picture, there is no doubt that Damon did an incredible job carrying the movie. With humor and seriousness, Damon captures the weltanschauung of loneliness and the effect that it has on the psyche of a person over a long period of time. I would highly recommend it for a movie night, but suggest bringing some tissues. It’ll definitely make you cry in many different ways.