Instead, much of Banner’s script chooses to tackle the same thematic issues of Paul Schrader’s “First Reformed,” from the grief and guilt over a loved one’s accidental death to the difficulty of choosing anything beyond nihilism for the future with the knowledge that our blue planet is spiraling towards destruction. Where Schrader’s script finds no easy answers for this brand of despair and pointedly does not pass judgment over those who succumb to it, Banner’s script clearly sees Alex's choice to seek a future in the stars as a selfish one. 

A Brandi Carlile cover of “Space Oddity” plays as he hits his breaking point. A quick montage featuring shots of his family interspersed with shots of an overly dry, cracked desert and raging forest fires flashes across the screen as he angrily says to himself in the mirror, “You want me to stay. You want me to choose this uninhabitable, ruined planet. I'm sure you look up at the stars and wish you were here too, but you’re not.” 

Of course, because this is a rom-com, this justified anger is no match for the power of love. Banner proposes that the answer to Alex’s nihilism and the cure for his “selfishness” is as simple as finding a life partner, choosing optimism, living your life with purpose, and embracing the love of your family.

Bowie's song ends bittersweetly, with the narrator singing, "planet Earth is blue, and there's nothing left to do." Similarly, Sedgwick ends her film with a zoomed-out portrait of our blue planet. "This is where I live," Alex’s narration tells us. We're meant to feel uplifted, and for a moment, we are. But despite the film’s rosy resolution, as the film fades to black, the fact that we are still on a dying planet continues to loom large.

Now playing in theaters. 

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