A Million Miles Away (2023)
We all know that streaming content can miss the mark, usually because it tries too hard to emulate a certain genre and comes out looking like a Lifetime or Asylum movie. In the case of A Million Miles Away, which is based on the true story of Jose Hernandez’s journey into space and currently streaming on Amazon Prime, everything works.
Jose Hernandez is the son of migrant farmworkers from Mexico. When he’s not in school, and even when he should be, he’s busy picking grapes with his dad and other family members. Both Jose and his cousin, Beto, fall asleep in class.
However, Jose is a gifted kid. He’s got the answers to complex multiplication problems before his classmates are done wincing at all the numbers. He’s very adept at science and physics. After watching the very last moon landing in 1972 (the movie shows Apollo 11 instead), he’s sure he wants to be an astronaut.
Jose’s teacher, Miss Young, sounds the alarm to Jose’s parents because she’s afraid the migrant farmworker life is harming the Hernandez kids’ education, as they’re constantly going between the field, the classroom, and Mexico. Long story short, the Hernandez family moves to Stockton, Jose graduates from the University of the Pacific, and goes to work at the Lawrence Livermore Labs (On a side note, that’s one of the places where they filmed Tron).
None of this is easy, of course. The receptionist at Lawrence mistakes Jose for the janitor (this really happened, by the way), and he has to seriously hustle to prove himself. He also meets and marries Adela, a sweet lady whose dad insists on being their chaperone. Jose and Adela have five children and Adela opens a restaurant.
Year after year Jose submits his application to work at NASA and every year he gets rejected. He almost gives up, but Adela gives him pep talks where needed. When one of Jose’s family members gets killed in a drive-by, the man’s daughter tells Jose that he owes her dad now and has to go into space.
It’s no shocker where the story ends up, which is one of the pitfalls of biopics. The really good ones will always find a way to make a familiar story suspenseful and compelling, but other than that there’s nothing to spoil because we generally come in with at least a few ideas about the subject.
I found myself smiling all over this movie, because it’s really nice seeing these families taking care of each other. Adela’s dad’s dictum, while a wee bit extreme for his grown daughter, is well-taken and probably pretty effective in keeping out bad eggs. It’s funny to see Adela’s relatives eyeing Jose, particularly two guys who I think were her cousins or brothers or something. They look tough except that one of them really likes Blow Pops, so that’s cool.
There are so many positive, intelligent messages here. Jose is committed to excelling as an engineer and later an astronaut, basing his life around a recipe his dad gave him. Find out what your goal is and what you have to do to get there. Work hard. If you don’t know something, learn it. When you think you’ve made it, work harder. The movie spells all of this out for us with intertitles. In the meantime, Jose doesn’t lose touch with his heritage or his family, and there’s a very strong sense of identity.
Also, the nostalgia is on point. Among other things, Rick Astley fans are going to be very happy, although there’s no Rick-rolling going on.
I only have a couple of things I would say about the film. One, the ending feels a little flat. We don’t get much time to revel in Jose’s great accomplishment before the credits roll; although it’s really cool seeing the real Jose in space and everything, we’ve already made the connection with the movie Jose. They could have held off for just a few more seconds before cutting to the ending stuff.
Secondly, (spoiler alert) the film inserts a monarch butterfly into the proceedings at the last minute, which was a little confusing because it looked as if a monarch had gotten into Jose’s shuttle. Turns out, though, the monarch is a favorite metaphor of the real Jose because it symbolizes the process of becoming the best one can be. I just wish we could have seen it more as a motif throughout the movie.
Other than that, A Million Miles Away is right on target. It’s well-made, the acting is terrific, especially Pena and Salazar as Jose and Adela, and we need more movies like this.
A Million Miles Away is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Rated PG.
My grade: A
Principal Cast: Michael Pena, Rosa Salazar, Julio Cesar Cedillo, Veronica Falcon, Garret Dillahunt, Sarayu Blue, Bobby Soto, Ashley Ciarra, Eric Johnson, Jordan Dean, Michelle Krusiec, Emma Fassler
Directed by Alejandra Marquez Abella.
Written by Bettina Gilois, Hernan Jimenez, and Alejandra Marquez Abella.