THE STORY – Margot, a brilliant young scientist with a troubled marriage, disappears while hiking with her husband, Sam. Weeks later she miraculously reappears the day of her own memorial service. She remembers nothing about her life — except her research on Mars, which she is desperate to find and destroy. Clearly, she is not the same person she was before, yet Sam welcomes Margot’s return as a second chance at their love.
THE CAST – Mackenzie Davis, Rupert Friend & Atanáz Babinchak
THE TEAM – Lili Horvát (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 106 Minutes
What’s the best solution for a marriage on the rocks? A hike through the Hungarian mountains, especially when one partner is forcing the other to do it on very little sleep. What could possibly go wrong here? Well, plenty, as director-writer Lili Horvát shows in her relationship drama with a hint of sci-fi, “My Notes on Mars.” Starring Mackenzie Davis and Rupert Friend, these two delightful actors examine a couple’s breaking point and the ways they try to bring themselves back to each other, even when it seems out-of-this-world impossible to do so. But be warned, this is a “trust the process” kind of film that takes quite some time to get going, and even when it does, there’s still plenty of lingering questions in the end.
Margot (Davis), an astrophysicist, is gently floating in a pool, taking in the vast galaxy around her, until a slow, hypnotizing, kaleidoscopic zoom into the surface of Mars, down to its most molecular level, takes over the screen – a clear sign of trippy things to come. She and her husband Sam Fogle (Friend), a horse breeder, have recently relocated to the serene Hungarian countryside in an attempt to fix their lives, but the move has only put a strain on their marriage. Margot, who had some sort of breakdown with her work, never wants to keep any of the plans he makes for them, while Sam typically makes plans without considering if she would even be interested in them. After she gets a bit of inspiration from a visit to the observatory, where she meets adoring student Alex (Atanáz Babinchak), Margot starts obsessively researching again, exploring the possibility of living on Mars. This only further fractures their relationship, and neither one seems willing to budge or meet in the middle with their stubbornness.
Things take a disastrous turn when they head on a hiking trip and Margot, exhausted from a late night of research, goes missing. Everyone assumes the worst, but then during her memorial two months later, she reappears. Davis is entirely captivating as she walks through an open field and into her home like an alien creature, and the swelling, spacey synth score certainly reaffirms that image. It doesn’t look like she has a single scratch on her, but she can’t remember anything or anyone, other than Alex. That adds even more tension to her marriage, with Sam incapable of processing this new way of life or understanding what’s going on with her. Also new is that she desperately wants to get her hands on her research and destroy it, almost like the sanctity of keeping humans off of Mars rests in her hands.
Over the remaining runtime, few answers are provided to viewers about what happened, what is happening, and what all of this has to do with life on Mars. At first, Sam struggles and fails to show much compassion and understanding regarding his wife’s amnesia, getting angry that she doesn’t remember their song or anything about their life. Margot also goes on her own journey, which involves exploring and quickly discovering an unsatisfactory relationship with the immature Alex. At the same time, there’s so much interest in her research from outside forces, but there’s no explanation as to what it’s about and how she came to her findings. Certain truths about Margot are also later revealed with little explanation, so we just have to fill in the information gaps. All of this makes for a disjointed film that will almost certainly lose audiences the further it goes. Eventually, and perhaps a little too late, it finds its footing when it focuses on Margot and Sam finding their way to each other again. Davis and Friend delicately approach each other, giving us clues into what it was like when they first fell in love, and it’s genuinely sweet to witness. They’re like two innocent teenagers experiencing their first love, and it wins you over. There are even instances that evoke laughter, like when Margot gives into her animalistic instincts to smell Sam. It’s also nice to see Sam evolve from the angry husband, giving Friend an opportunity to show his softer side.
As the film heads toward its finale, there are many questions that it opens up regarding its science tie-ins and whatever the hell happened with Margot on that fateful hike. Horvát isn’t interested in providing any answers, and she’s hoping that you’ve been on board with the film this entire time to give it a pass. Considering that the whole film is a jam-packed mystery and a bit of a slog to get through, it’s not getting off that easy. But at least there are some stellar performances from Davis and Friend along the way.
