A composite of several real-life balloon trips (Glaisher is real and Wren is fictitious, but likely based on the flamboyant French balloonist Sophie Blanchard), “The Aeronauts” has a natural buoyancy that mostly resists the drag of its earthbound flashbacks. Stuffy scenes between James and his parents ( Tom Courtenay and Anne Reid ) alternate with his entreaties for money from the Royal Society, where his bewhiskered fellow scientists think he’s a hoot. After a few of these interludes, neither we nor the movie can wait to get back in that basket with Amelia. Structural road blocks aside, “The Aeronauts” is that rare adventure movie to celebrate the silence in which its wonders unfold. Equal parts dizzying and dippy, “The Aeronauts” is family entertainment at its most charming and chaste.

Source: New York Times December 05, 2019 14:03 UTC