The Aeronauts

The Aeronauts has some of the best special effects I've seen in a film, and what's interesting about them is they don't recreate things that defy physics, like superheroes flying or giant monsters. They reproduce what it is like to be in a hot air balloon several miles above the Earth. You understand that these are actors on a soundstage or some such, but you feel the vertigo anyway.

The film is also interesting for its history. In the 1860s, the notion of weather prediction, or meteorology, was thought of as bunk. John Glaisher (Eddie Redmayne) is determined to show that weather prediction can be done, which, as he rightly says, would change the lives of many and save lives. He has procured funds to get himself a balloon and go up higher than any man before, but he needs a pilot.

She turns out to be Amelia Wren (a fictional character, unlike Glaisher), fiercely played by Felicity Jones. She has been up in balloons before, and her last trip resulted in the death of her husband.

This is all told in flashback as Redmayne and Jones ascend to the heavens. Redmayne takes readings, and Jones basically keeps things running smoothly. But as they get higher it gets colder, and eventually they must descend, but the valve on the balloon is frozen shut. Jones has to climb to the top of the balloon, which is crusted in ice, to release it. This scene is so fraught with peril that despite realizing it's all staged made me dizzy.

The film was directed by Tom Harper and is based on truth, but as mentioned, Wren is fictional. Glaisher actually went up with a man, Henry Coxwell. Perhaps in a bid to be forward-thinking, a female character was substituted, and some historians of science were upset that a real woman scientist of the period, of which there were quite a few, wasn't depicted. As someone who has no knowledge of this subject, I found it credible, but Jones isn't playing a scientist, she's really an acrobat.

There are some movies that depict heights so effectively that the viewer gets vertigo, and The Aeronauts is one of them. If I were in a hot air balloon I'd be clinging to the sides of the gondola, if I could get off the floor. I wouldn't be climbing rigging, that's for sure.

Jones puts in a very good, physical performance. I'm not sure where her work ends and a stuntwoman begins, but she effectively displays what was involved for a woman doing such work. Redmayne is kind of left in the dust by her performance, although he is fine.

While not a great film, The Aeronauts is engaging and intriguing, the kind of movie that makes you want to read more about it.