“Ad Astra” and “Abominable” are not easily recognisable as thematically complementary works but there’s something to be said about the dual journeys of the two protagonists – both of them buoyed by a relationship hinging on an absent father – that made me think of them in relation to each other. The father-child dynamic has been a dramatically rich one for centuries of stories, but neither journey seems to be reaching for new heights in their deployment of this trope.
The Brad Pitt space drama, “Ad Astra,” directed by James Gray centres on Roy McBride, an astronaut who is selected to lead an important space mission, to go in search of his father, whose actions may be threatening to the entire solar system. McBride’s search for the father he previously thought dead is the mission that defines “Ad Astra”’s structure. The search riffs on the “Heart of Darkness” dynamic of Joseph Conrad, with Roy’s search for a father he has mirrored his career on. So the ghost of Father McBride looms over the film as Roy goes deeper into the unknown, literally and emotionally.
