Countdown

Based on a book by Hank Searls, Countdown follows astronaut Lee Stegler (James Caan) as he’s chosen over Robert Duvall’s Chiz to possibly become the first man to set foot on the moon – with the mission, perhaps predictably, fraught with a variety of problems and complications. Filmmaker Robert Altman, working from Loring Mandel’s screenplay, delivers an exceedingly (and often excessively) deliberate drama that doesn’t contain much in terms of an entry point for the viewer, as Countdown concerns itself primarily with the logistics and bureaucracy behind sending a man into outer space – with the lack of a concrete human element, for the most part, preventing one from working up much interest in or enthusiasm for most of this stuff. (There are a few interludes involving conversations and arguments between various protagonists, but such moments are few and far between a heavy and ongoing emphasis on technical jargon.) And while Altman has certainly elicited strong work from his performers and the movie does contain a handful of legitimately engrossing sequences, Countdown generally comes off as an off-puttingly matter-of-fact procedural that’s as tedious as it is (seemingly) authentic.

** out of ****