Brad Pitt stars in a scene from the movie "Ad Astra." The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. (CNS/Fox)

By Catholic News Service

Compelling sci-fi drama, set in the near future, in which an astronaut (Brad Pitt) goes on a quest to communicate with his father (Tommy Lee Jones), a pioneer space traveler who long ago disappeared during a mission to search for extraterrestrial life from the outer boundaries of the solar system. As he endures a variety of challenges, he broods on his emotional isolation and inability to maintain relationships while also pondering the conflicting evidence suggesting that his dad, long portrayed as a deceased hero, may not only be alive but may, in fact, be a villain.

By turns an epic and an intimate character study, director and co-writer James Gray’s moody film features several brief scenes of prayer that will intrigue believers and that, along with the overall artistic merit of the enterprise, may convince the parents of older teens to let them join the audience.

Some gory violence, a suicide, a couple of profanities, at least one use each of rough and crude language, an obscene gesture. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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