There’s a man-hidden, unconscious and bleeding-in the ship’s hull, which Marina discovers when he comes crashing through the ceiling on top of her, breaking her left arm as she tries to catch him. While they’re all upbeat and provide polished, perfunctory answers during an initial television interview from space, their polite workmanship is shattered with the realization that they’re not alone. David suffers from vertigo and vomits not long after takeoff Zoe’s delicate charm necklace floats up toward her face to indicate a loss of gravity, and once they’ve docked she unbuckles and exclaims to Marina: “Are you kidding? That was incredible!” (“Stowaway” depicts space travel, at least initially, not as a process that’s smooth and tranquil, but rather one that shakes you to your bones, to your core.) But the film reveals in small, subtle ways that these two are indeed regular people and not superhuman astronauts. They’ve been chosen from thousands of applicants and undergone extensive training. Kendrick is the mission’s medical researcher, Zoe Levenson Kim is biologist David Kim, who’s studying the respiratory possibilities of algae.
Collette stars as the ship’s commander, Marina Barnett, who’s making her third and final journey to the colony there. In the near future, a team blasts off on a two-year trip to Mars. And the fundamental reason they find themselves in their chief predicament, although it’s explained to us, still provides an implausible distraction. Penna and Morrison (who’s once again the film’s editor, as well) more effectively established Mikkelsen’s character wordlessly than they do with Toni Collette, Anna Kendrick, Daniel Dae Kim, and Shamier Anderson having conversations with each other as they address various emergencies. (This is actually the first feature screenplay the duo wrote together, even though “Arctic” came out first.) It’s a clever take on a familiar genre with a terrific cast, but the slow burn may be too slow this time. Now, Penna and Morrison are back with a similar premise on a slightly larger scale: “Stowaway” is a spare survival story in space, featuring four characters on a doomed mission to Mars. Having an expressive and magnetic actor the caliber of Mikkelsen at its center certainly didn’t hurt. The film was gripping in its understatement and use of silence-it was practically dialogue-free-and a riveting exercise in exploring the detailed minutiae of human nature.
Three years ago, director Joe Penna and his co-writer, Ryan Morrison, made their feature filmmaking debut with “ Arctic,” a spare survival story starring a snowbound Mads Mikkelsen awaiting rescue.
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