The Aeronauts gives priority to production design over engaging storytelling, and the film never recovers from its exceptionally bland script.

| Dec 27, 2019

[The] breathtaking spectacle of it all is glorious.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 12, 2019

Yes, women belong in balloons. They also belong in good movies, and it's a shame this isn't one.

| Dec 10, 2019

While at times the film does reach great heights, a certain indecisiveness about what exactly it is, The Aeronauts often finds itself adrift in the moments it gets off the ground at all.

| Dec 10, 2019

Dull, plodding, and formulaic.

| Dec 7, 2019

...if you're a grown woman watching The Aeronauts, you may feel-as feisty as Jones' performance is-that you're being talked down to. It's as if women don't have enough adventure stories of our own.

| Dec 6, 2019

I can't resist: this movie never gets off the ground.

| Dec 6, 2019

An adventure drama that feels purposefully (if somewhat wonkily) built for prestige-season acclaim.

| Original Score: B- | Dec 6, 2019

The thrill of The Aeronauts lies in its death-defying stunts.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 6, 2019

As the balloon rises, the film does too. Not because it achieves the kind of splendor it seems to seeking, exactly, but because it grows simpler and even sillier.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 6, 2019

I won't make great claims for "The Aeronauts" as a drama about a pioneering meteorologist, but as a thrill ride, it's certainly effective...

| Dec 6, 2019

When they are in the air, it is gorgeous, exciting, and great fun.

| Original Score: B+ | Dec 6, 2019

Breathless adventure and fully committed performances from Redmayne and Jones as Victorian-era balloonists can't compensate for the fictions that fill this fact-based story with hot air.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 6, 2019

The balloon goes up, but the drama does not fly.

| Dec 6, 2019

A heavier-than-air adventure, set in Victorian England, that seldom rises above the level of elegant hokum.

| Dec 6, 2019

Both a spectacle in the air and an intimate drama about a relationship that grows under daunting conditions, The Aeronauts grows on you, but all attempts at character development are communicated through a series of annoying flashbacks.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 5, 2019

The Aeronauts never really feels genuinely magical despite its welcome celebration of scientific discovery, and the dialogue is uninspired.

| Dec 5, 2019

If only the story had cast off the ballast of the predictable meet-cute plot and trusted the truth more, maybe The Aeronauts would be a more thrilling flight.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 5, 2019

It's a pretty picture and a sweet adventure, and sometimes that's enough.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 5, 2019

Equal parts dizzying and dippy, "The Aeronauts" is family entertainment at its most charming and chaste.

| Dec 5, 2019