The Aeronauts
Directed By: Tom Harper
So The Aeronauts is about a ballooning trip to study weather in 1862 London that goes horribly wrong. I decided to give this a go because it looked pretty and sounded interesting but I have to tell you the minute it was obvious Amelia was taking the dog with her I started Googling spoilers.
Who cares about these two what happens to the dog?
Only I found a more interesting story.
Felicity Jones plays Amelia Wren a female aeronaut who Eddie Redmayne’s character hires to take him up. She’s trying to bounce back from a horrible tragedy on her last trip.
I was not surprised that Amelia Wren was not real and instead based off a few different people. It was actually Henry Tracey Coxwell who she’s replacing which while I don’t necessarily mind the replacement to have a main female character it definitely made me second guess why they needed the flirty nature and the charged and longing looks at all. (I mean Harper pats himself on the back for the change in several interviews I read and they don’t outright become involved but why bother with any of that?)
Anyway Wren’s main characterization comes from Sophie Blanchard a French balloonist who lived a fascinating life that included being Napolean’s Aeronaut of the Official Festivals and when he was toast and Louis returned he kept her around. And she had a crazy cinematic death that pretty much could be the framing device.
I mean the Aeronauts is an okay film. I wouldn’t rush out and get Prime to watch it. But if you can skim off someone else’s? 😉 There’s beautiful shots and Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones do work well together, as they did before. And I do think the story itself was well-balanced between the two and even leaned toward her.
I just kept thinking I would rather watch Sophie’s story.
Also- the dog. Spoiler!
He’s wearing a parachute and Amelia tosses him out of the balloon as part of the show which parachute or not did present the rare and weird moment where I actually wanted Eddie Redmayne to toss someone else out of a balloon.
If you do want animal related (or any other apparently spoilers) check out Does the Dog Die I know that a movie blogger told me about this site ages ago but I cannot remember who. (Apologies!) Still since I watched this around Christmas when the film was still relatively new and rather small I was impressed to see the information there!
I think I might know someone who would 100% wear Felicity Jones outfit very casually. I don’t think this film is up my street, but I just want to add that I met Eddie Redmayne. 😔 His friend was a little rude though lol.