How to face separation and independence?
If you barely include the relatively action-adventure "Star Wars 9", there are indeed a lot of excellent space-themed movies recently, from "The First Men in the Moon", "High Life" that continues human life despite all odds, "Ad Astra" that searches for her long-lost father, to "Lucy in the Sky" that gradually loses its sense of reality when it returns to Earth, in which many powerful actors play their strong acting skills one after another. After the performance of several powerful actors, the space craze, which emphasizes the role and the plot more than the large special effects scenes, seems to continue to Eva Green's "Proxima".
Is the movie "Proxima" any good?
Although the movie is based on the theme of human space missions, "Proxima" is actually a family drama in the skin of science fiction, focusing on a female astronaut, Sarah, who has to work hard to be selected for the Mars program, and the difficulties she encounters in the training process because of her congenital physical condition. Through her daughter Stella, who is raised by herself, the author discusses the complex parent-child relationship between the parents and their children, which is caused by the multiple roles they often have to play. Although they love each other deeply, they sometimes have contradictions and cannot understand each other. The simple story is enough to drive the audience's emotions.
Eva Green, who has mostly appeared as a snake charmer in her works and has received public attention because of her outstanding appearance, plays an astronaut who has a dream but is hindered by her status as a woman and a mother in "Proxima". Eva Green gives a very accurate and complete interpretation of her role, from her efforts to achieve her goal of going into space as a mother raising her daughter alone, even in a male-dominated environment, to the struggle of a strong woman between work and family at the core of the story. And it is not an overstatement to say that "Proxima" is the masterpiece of her career acting.
Female oriented space movie
Director Alice Winocour, who wrote "Mustang" and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, has always been good at depicting the psychological growth and transformation of female characters. In "Proxima", through the many obstacles Sarah, a female astronaut, goes through along the way, whether it's the inability to cope with her innate physical strength, a single mother's concern for her young daughter, or her questioning of her own will, abilities and dreams, all are skillfully captured through the director's delicate camera.
I like the director's gentle narrative about the inner conflicts of Sarah, a female astronaut, in what is considered a cold and hard space subject, through the relationship between her and her daughter, from the initial intimacy to becoming estranged after not seeing each other for a long time, but still loving each other deeply and caring for each other at all times, making Sarah ponder whether she should continue to persist or return to her family. The dilemma of a good mother's role becomes more layered, and make everyone can empathize with it.
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Themes of the "Proxima" movie
Although "Proxima" to the main axis of many children aspire to the profession of an astronaut, the whole film has not left the Earth until the end is a bit strange, but even so, in Germany and Russia and other places with the real scenes of the General Space Administration, the film seems to be a monotonous training process, in fact, all bring out these astronauts in order to achieve this mission, must go through months of arduous training, testing the physical and Will power, while bearing the physical and psychological impact of the great challenge.
Therefore, director Alice Winocour's delicate portrayal of a mother's feelings in the workplace and her daughter's inability to let go of her, ties together the three important elements of the film: dreams, mother's love and women's rights, and presents the fragile yet strong side of a mother in the face of difficulties. In addition to its clear storytelling connotation, it also resonates strongly with the audience with the unbreakable emotional connection between mother and daughter.
The element of affection in the "Proxima" movie
Family and kinship have always been the most difficult elements for me to resist. We have seen many space movies about family love in the past, but from "Interstellar", "The First Men in the Moon" to this "Proxima", it is the first time that a woman's perspective is used to depict her feelings of being separated from her family by the vast universe. Perhaps from Sarah's words to her daughter, "I may not be able to take you to see the rocket." To the final determination, no matter what to fulfill their own promises of defiance may seem selfish and reckless, but more importantly, it allows the audience to deeply feel the greatness of a mother in the fight against the entire society alone, while practicing their own dreams, but also will not ignore their children.
"Proxima" tells us that more important than the curiosity and longing for the unknown space is to cherish what we have. They say that they want to put their life on Earth into a shoebox before they go into space. Although the mother and daughter will soon be tens of millions of kilometers away from each other, as "Interstellar" says, "Only love can cross time and space." As they watched the rocket together, they were closer to each other than they had ever been when they shared a bed.
Conclusion of "Proxima" Review
On the whole, I like Eva Green's interpretation of the film in which she continues to persist in her dreams even though she is under pressure from the workplace and her family, and enjoys the fact that she is getting closer to her goal and trying to find a balance between the two sides. The director constructs the whole movie through the relationship between her and her daughter, from the initial worry and anxiety, the gradually accumulating conflicts, to the final unraveling of the knot between the two and their belief that they can both take care of themselves during this time.
Everyone has to face separation and independence in their life, how to adjust their mindset to overcome these difficulties and face more unknown challenges ahead? I think this is the question that "Proxima" asks the audience to think about through this "space story".
