It’s a pun, see, the title of this movie, because “The Space Between Us” is about a teenager who actually is in space. That’s a long way for a lovesick boy to yearn.
He is Gardner, played by the somewhat spacey Asa Butterfield (from “Hugo”). The first human born at the first permanent colony on Mars, Gardner has never visited Earth. He’s a lonely lad, his astronaut mother having died in childbirth, but he texts regularly with an Earth girl, Tulsa (Britt Robertson).
Even though there’s speculation that his outer-space bones might not handle the crushing weight of Earth’s gravity, he finally gets the chance to travel to the third planet from the Sun.
This gives the movie, written by Alan Loeb, a chance to portray Gardner’s utter delight in simple things like rain and foliage and hamburgers. He is allegedly some kind of genius boy, but he dumbs down in order to play the fish-out-of-water routine. (I wonder if he gets his name from Chauncey Gardiner, the isolated savant thrust into the world in “Being There.”)
One of Gardner’s dopier moves is to suddenly decide he’s going to find his biological father, an idea introduced late in the story. A few simple Google searches, especially with NASA’s beefed-up technology, would have cleared all this up before he left Mars.
But no, the film wants to be a mystery-romance-road movie. So Gardner and Tulsa steal a series of cars and make pit stops at the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas.
Chasing them are an astronaut (Carla Gugino) who’s been Gardner’s surrogate mom on Mars, and the scientist (Gary Oldman) who hatched the Mars program in the first place.
I know what you’re thinking: at least there’s Gary Oldman. And he does get quite a bit of screen time. But as is so often the case when he plays a normal, sincere character, Oldman doesn’t really get much going.
Director Peter Chelsom, whose odd career includes “Serendipity” and “Hear My Song,” has the skill to make some of the teen romance and the road trip come to life. It’s formula, but appealing enough.
Nobody could pull off the climax, however, which relies on all the film’s contrivances piling up at once. Now that’s a real zero-gravity zone.
“The Space Between Us” (2 1/2 stars)
The first boy (Asa Butterfield) born on Mars wants to visit Earth to see his pen pal (Britt Robertson), but his outer-space bones might not let him survive the trip. Some of the romance-road trip aspects of this movie are passably done, but eventually the formula catches up with it. With Gary Oldman.
Rating: PG-13, for violence, subject matter
Showing: Alderwood Mall, Everett Stadium, Marysville, Stanwood, Pacific Place, Thorton Place Stadium, Woodinville, Cascade Mall
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