Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Sarah is a French astronaut training at the European Space Agency in Cologne. She is the only woman in the arduous program. She lives alone with Stella, her seven year old daughter. Sarah feels guilty that she cannot spend more time with her child. Her love is overpowering, unsettling. When Sarah is chosen to join the crew of a year-long space mission called Proxima, it creates chaos in the mother-daughter relationship.
Proxima is a quiet, intimate drama elevated by Eva Green's deeply committed performance as Sarah, capturing the emotional tension between professional ambition and maternal love with rare authenticity. The acting is the film's clear standout, with Green delivering a nuanced, physically and emotionally demanding portrayal. The plot is solid but follows a fairly predictable emotional arc — the guilt-ridden mother preparing for a great sacrifice — without many surprises. Cinematography is competent and occasionally striking in its depiction of training environments, but not particularly distinctive. Novelty is moderate: the female astronaut-mother angle gives it a fresh perspective on a well-worn genre, though it doesn't reinvent the wheel. The ending is emotionally satisfying but somewhat expected, landing on a note of bittersweet resolve rather than anything that reframes the journey.