The Space Between Us
STX Entertainment | Release Date: February 3, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
33
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
15
Negative:
16
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
63
Rolling StoneDavid FearFeb 13, 2017
While director Peter Chelsom (Funny Bones, Serendipity) can functionally guide his cast through their derring-do and dewy-eyed paces, neither he nor screenwriter Allan Loeb can steer the whole endeavor out of Clichéville U.S.A. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsAllen SalkinFeb 3, 2017
At a certain point, the film gains atmosphere and is rescued by the sincerity and sweetness of the young actors. Better, the plot finally hits a groove in the final quarter, and a soaring soundtrack twangs the right emotional notes. Read full review
58
MTV NewsAmy NicholsonFeb 2, 2017
The Space Between Us has admirable ambition, even though none of it works. Sure, the romance is a bust and the script is a howl. Yet every so often, Butterfield becomes infatuated with a new earth treasure...and for a moment, the film reminds us that there are things on this planet worth risking your life for. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartFeb 13, 2017
Director Peter Chelsom (“Hannah Montana: The Movie”) and screenwriter Allan Loeb (“Collateral Beauty”) squander countless opportunities to make this fish-out-of-water story intellectually curious or even much fun. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyFeb 3, 2017
The Space Between Us attempts to take young love to literally new heights before crash-landing into an earthbound hash of schmaltzy clichés and romantic absurdities. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 3, 2017
It presents a compelling situation, genuinely touching moments and pockets of strong acting ... and dialogue that has people in the audience turning to each other and laughing because it’s so absurd. Read full review
50
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergFeb 2, 2017
The movie is consistently tougher to resist than it might seem. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliFeb 2, 2017
The Space between Us is what it looks like when a promising premise is betrayed by a dumbed-down, hackneyed screenplay. Read full review
50
The Film StageChelsey GrassoFeb 2, 2017
It’s a sci-fi-teen-rom-actioner, if you will, and I mean that in the worst way possible. This is a film that doesn’t stick with any genre, but instead clumsily navigates between all three, ultimately leaving the viewer feeling shortchanged in every area. Read full review
50
IndieWireDavid EhrlichFeb 2, 2017
The film is undone by the wobbly dynamic between its romantic leads. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoFeb 2, 2017
The Space Between Us is not without bright spots (celestial production design dazzles, Butterfield’s niceties are refreshing in today’s day and age), but it’s ultimately more a slog than serendipitous romance. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrFeb 2, 2017
Older moviegoers may also recognize The Space Between Us as a dress-up variation on the old Jeff Bridges/Karen Allen movie “Starman” (1984), and by far the best parts have to do with Gardner’s often comic adjustments to life on Earth. Read full review
50
TimeStephanie ZacharekFeb 2, 2017
If you dare to keep track, the dumb stuff in The Space Between Us piles up quickly.... But it's not as easy to make fun of the mild sweetness at the heart of the movie. Read full review
40
EmpireJonathan PileFeb 13, 2017
An interesting premise fails to ignite amid an underwritten central romance and some clichéd plotting. An often eye-rolling ride. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonFeb 8, 2017
The Space Between Us is mostly harmless. But it won’t come close to troubling your heartstrings, let alone the space between your ears. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzFeb 2, 2017
It seems unfinished, choppy, the storytelling almost of the after-school special variety. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerFeb 2, 2017
A shameless pastiche of Starman’s alien-on-Earth sci-fi, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble’s medical pathos and any number of young-lovers-on-the-run stories, The Space Between Us may set back the Earth-Mars relationship light years. Read full review
38
USA TodayBrian TruittFeb 2, 2017
There’s fish-out-of-water hijinks as the Martian boy looks for the dad he never knew, but the whole sci-fi narrative collapses into a mess of illogical story beats and groan-inducing quasi-tragic bits right out of "Love Story." Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireFeb 2, 2017
The whole thing ultimately collapses in a heap of unintentionally hilarious melodrama. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineKenji FujishimaFeb 2, 2017
The Space Between Us is simply disappointing when it isn’t trying to browbeat its audience into emotional submission. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 2, 2017
The science is sloppy, the sentimentality is sloppier in “The Space Between Us,” a sci-fi romance pairing up agreeable leads in a cut-and-paste script. Read full review
33
The PlaylistKimber MyersFeb 3, 2017
This is a saccharine science fiction romance that doesn’t actually concern itself with science fiction or romance; instead, it’s the equivalent of astronaut ice cream, lacking in substance and crumbling to bits at the slightest pressure. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternFeb 2, 2017
The story plays out on two planets, Mars and Earth, while the production follows its own orbit in a state of zero gravity, zero nuance and subzero sense. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckFeb 2, 2017
Combining its adventure and romantic plotlines in painfully hokey fashion, The Space Between Us (the title is a pun, get it?) is so ludicrous that only a cinematic stylist might have been able to pull it off. Read full review
25
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallFeb 7, 2017
The Space Between Us is romantic science fiction with zero gravity and less to recommend. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Feb 2, 2017
Chelsom applies the middle-school-dance sentimentality with a ladle, leaning heavily on the tinkle of an overbearing score and a soundtrack of generic, cost-efficient pop cues. Read full review
25
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonFeb 2, 2017
As with Collateral Beauty, Loeb piles on the ridiculous narrative twists to eye-rolling effect. The last twenty minutes of The Space Between Us are a rollercoaster ride of changing motivations, baffling character reveals, and overblown dramatic gestures that completely defy belief. Read full review
25
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenFeb 2, 2017
The nonstop silliness of this picture leaves one choking on stifled laughter. Read full review
20
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenFeb 8, 2017
There is a certain sweetness to this teen romance and Gardner’s naive fascination in the newly discovered wonders of Earth. But there is so much that is dopey, on both a scientific and emotional level, that The Space Between Us strikes with the impact of a crash landing. Read full review
20
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangFeb 3, 2017
The pacing of the individual scenes and the direction of the actors feel so clunky and amateurish, you may wonder after a while if “The Space Between Us” is meant to indicate the yawning emotional chasm between the actors, struggling to connect across a galaxy’s worth of wretched dialogue. Read full review
20
VarietyPeter DebrugeFeb 2, 2017
If romance-seeking audiences know what’s best for them, they’ll put some space between themselves and this movie. Read full review
20
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeFeb 2, 2017
It’s hard not to engage in eye-rolling over what already promises to be one of 2017’s worst movies: The Space Between Us spends so much time piling one daffy, laughable plot beat upon another that it never bothers to nail down the characters. Read full review
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