Madison Messenger - January 17th, 2020

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January 17, 2021 - MADISON MESSENGER - Page 7
For sad, dreamy sci-fi, watch ‘Midnight Sky’
It may seem counterproductive to watch a melancholy film when
in a melancholy mood, but I have discovered such films can offer a
sense of comfort—most of the time, that is.
A melancholy film can: provide respite because its plot frequency
is on your current wavelength; offer a shimmer of hope that, some-
Basket project helps
124 Plain City families
This year, the Plain City Church Fellowship’s Christmas Basket
Project took on a new look. With the help of several individuals and
churches in the community, gift cards for food and gifts for the children
were delivered to people in the Jonathan Alder School District.
As a result, 124 families were served, including 296 children. With
the support of businesses, the school district, churches and many
individuals, we were able to provide help to many in need this
Christmas. We thank you for your continued support.
Christmas Basket Committee: Dave McCray, Jim Kaufman,
Beth Beach, Brenda DeLeon
Donations appreciated
2020 was a hard year for everyone, but that didn’t stop this community
from coming together to help those in need this Christmas
season. Thanks to generous donations from individuals, churches,
and groups in Madison County, HELP House provided 62 families
with Christmas gifts—that’s 205 children! Without you, this event
wouldn’t have been possible. So, to all those that sponsored a family
or donated as part of a toy drive, thank you! You helped make this
event better than we could ever imagine.
Kelly Armfelt
HELP House
letters
where along the way, things
can get better; and serve as
a reminder that things can
always be worse.
“The Midnight Sky”—a
sad and dreamy science fiction feature directed by
George Clooney—offers some hope, but really is geared
toward those who wish to take solace in the fact that
the world in which the characters reside is a whole lot
more messed up than our current reality.
When the film opens, a cataclysmic event has befallen
our planet. Thousands of humans and animals
have died from the air they breathe and millions of humans
have been displaced from their home countries.
They are trying frantically to find a location that will
allow them to survive, at least for a few more months
and years. Among the few hundred evacuated to an underground
shelter are those who live on a remote outpost
in the Arctic Circle. As the doctors, researchers and
their families are trying to squeeze into a helicopter
that will take them far away from this unnamed and
undescribed disaster, a lone inhabitant has decided to
stay behind. That person is Augustine Lofthouse
(Clooney), a terminally ill scientist who volunteers to
essentially die alone in order to try to make contact with
a slew of astronauts who are still on exploratory missions
in space.
One such spacecraft currently “online” is the Aether,
whose five-person crew is en route from a two-year mission
to Jupiter’s moon—a moon that Augustine discovered
decades prior and theorized could sustain human
life. While it is known he desperately wants to warn the
crew of the event on Earth, it is strongly hinted that he
also wants to know if his theory is correct. (Hey, we
can’t fault the man for it. I would want reassurance of
how smart I was, too, before finding permanent rest.)
As he alternates between administering his life-prolonging
medication, tracking the expanding cloud over
the planet via ominous computer, and trying to tinker
with the weaker communication signal so he can contact
the Aether, Augustine discovers that a young child
Getting around
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Dedra Cordle
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(newcomer Caoilinn Springall) has
been left behind.
Knowing he is going to die soon
and leave her all alone, Augustine
becomes more desperate to reach
the crew, or really anyone with a
working communication signal.
Upon realizing he is never going to
make contact with the outside
world at this outpost, he sets out,
with child in tow, through the dangerous
elements to reach a
“nearby” research station with a
much stronger signal.
As this is taking place, a parallel narrative is taking
place in the deep recesses of space. Having lost communications
with everyone on Earth three weeks prior, the
crew appears to be at a loss at what to do. Fearing the
lack of signal has pulled them off-course from home,
they grapple with the decision to carry on as-is or venture
onto the uncharted path, fingers crossed that it will
spark some kind of communication with Earth. No matter
which narrative is on screen, it seems there are no
good answers, only hope that things will work out in the
end.
That feeling is really what the movie is going for. The
material—an adaption of the novel “Good Morning, Midnight”
by Lily Brooks-Dalton—serves as a reminder that
things in this current timeline do not have to go the way
of this world, though it easily could and without the
promise of a distant moon to save us. The overall mood,
as well as the unhurried pace and obvious twist, of “The
Midnight Sky” will not be a fit for everyone, but I believe
some will appreciate its languid unveiling, its
lamentation on loneliness and missed opportunities,
and its offering of a new, albeit different, day.
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Grade: B-
Dedra Cordle is a staff writer and columnist for the Madison
Messenger.
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