In space no one can hear you scream, and in “Slingshot,” no one can tell you if you’re losing your mind or not. That’s the spare premise of Mikael Hafstrom’s psychological thriller, a film that attempts to graft tropes of the genre onto the inescapable corners of a spaceship, but can’t find the actual parts to make the transfer.
John (Casey Affleck) is on a high-level mission with two other astronauts aiming to slingshot themselves onto Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, in the hopes of harvesting methane as an energy source. Across the long voyage, the crew repeatedly enters hibernation sleep, which begins to fray their sense of reality. John begins seeing his lover on the ship and can’t tell if his other crew mate, Nash (Tomer Capone), is losing it himself as he begins scheming against Captain Franks (Laurence Fishburne).
The paranoia sets in all too quickly in this awkwardly paced thriller, and it’s among a handful of defects in a film whose creative process seemed to begin and end with its final twist in mind, haphazardly and unconvincingly working backward to construct what’s necessary to build up to it.
Even allowing for its small budget, the film has the look and feel of a cheaply produced cable sci-fi drama, an effect that isn’t helped by its clumsy narrative structure and dialogue, especially in the Hallmark-like romantic flashbacks between John and his lover (Emily Beecham).
Affleck and Fishburne do what they can to salvage things, and the final stretch picks up some momentum as it becomes tense between them. But by then, watching them contend with each other is to see two actors as trapped as their characters are in their doomed spacecraft.
Slingshot
Rated R for language and some violent, bloody images. Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes. In theaters.
Read More: ‘Slingshot’ Review: Trapped in Space
