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Spaceman review: Adam Sandler is a serious star as a lonely astronaut

An astronaut on a journey far from home appears to be losing his grip. But the opposite is closer to the truth in a movie with many virtues, transcendental aspirations and a rather overblown conceit, says Simon Ings

By Simon Ings

27 March 2024

SPACEMAN. Adam Sandler as Jakub??in Spaceman. Cr. Larry Horricks/Netflix ?? 2023.

Jakub (Adam Sandler) must come to terms with the nature of his reality

Larry Horricks/Netflix

Spaceman
Johan Renck
Netflix

CZECH astronaut Jakub Procházka (Adam Sandler) is dying of loneliness, six months into a solo space mission to visit a mysterious purple cloud. His wife Lenka (Carey Mulligan) is pregnant and, being already a lot lonelier than Jakub (who has been a wholly unsupportive husband), she decides to leave him.

Mission controllers keep the news from Jakub, but he knows what is going on. It is his sense of despair that draws in…

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