“A Million Miles Away”, which was released on Amazon Prime in this week, is a rather tame presentation of one inspiring real-life story which deserves better in my inconsequential opinion. While the story itself is fascinating enough to hold my attention for a while, the movie also often feels flat and bland in terms of storytelling and characterization, and that is a shame considering all the good efforts behind the screen.

The movie is about the dramatic life journey of José Hernández (Michael Peña), who was a child of poor Mexican immigrant family in the late 1960s. Around the time when his family settled in California instead of going back to Mexico, young Hernández came to aspire to become a NASA astronaut someday after watching the launch of Apollo 11 on TV, and he is all the more motivated as he graduates from a local college and then begins to work as an engineer at a government facility in the 1980s.

Of course, things are often hard and difficult for Hernández mainly because of his racial background. Right from his first day, he is ignored a lot by the supervisor and other engineers, and he is even mistaken for a janitor at one point. Nonetheless, he keeps going as usual while still reaching for his longtime goal, though his application letter for the NASA astronaut training program keeps getting rejected everytime.

Meanwhile, his life comes to have a little unexpected change via Adela (Rosa Salazar), a young Mexican American woman he happens to encounter at her current workplace. When Hernández shyly asks for a date, Adela accepts his request without much hesitation, though their first date turns out to be very awkward for him due to her parents and several other family members who are quite protective of her.

Around the time when Adela eventually becomes Mrs. Hernández, Hernández comes to draw some attention from his supervisor after showing his considerable skill and talent at last. He comes to receive some respect and recognition in addition to getting promotion, but he still wants to reach for the space as before, and that creates some tension in his relationship with his wife, who also has her own dream to pursue even while raising their kids in his frequent absence.

However, Adela also advises to her husband that he should try much harder for increasing the chance for realizing his lifelong dream, and what follows next is a typical montage sequence showing how Hernández does much more than merely keeping trying during next several years. Besides sending the application letter to NASA every year, he studies and trains himself a lot on many different things ranging from several foreign languages to aviation and scuba diving, and that makes him more determined and confident than before.

Hernández eventually succeeds in his 12th attempt, but, not so surprisingly, he soon comes to face a number of daunting obstacles as warned to him and many other selected trainees on the first day of their astronaut training program. Naturally, he comes to have doubts on whether he can really make it to the end, and he also conflicts with his wife at times as his mind is often busy with the ongoing training program.

Unfortunately, the screenplay by Bettina Gilois, Hernán Jiménez, and Alejandra Márquez Abella, which is based on Hernández’s memoir “Reaching for the Stars: The Inspiring Story of a Migrant Farmworker Turned Astronaut”, simply trudges from one small conflict after another without much dramatic effect. In case of a little human moment between Hernández and one colored female astronaut who was one of the ill-fated crew members who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, it generates some poignancy as the two characters have a sincere and honest conversation between them, but the movie just quickly passes through the following tragedy before moving onto when Hernández finally gets an opportunity to go to the space several years later.

Around the point where the movie expectedly reaches to its feel-good finale, we are touched to some degree as reflecting more on Hernández’s humble beginning, but we still do not get to know him much as a human being because the movie only focuses on his decency and determination without paying much attention to anything else. Michael Peña, who has shown considerable versatility since his small breakout supporting turn in Oscar-winning film “Crash” (2004), gives an earnest performance as diligently carrying the film as required, but his solid efforts do not wholly compensate for his blandly wholesome character, and you may also be distracted by the notable age difference between him and his character early in the story. On the opposite, Rosa Salazar manages to surpass her rather functional supporting role, and several other main cast members including Garret Dillahunt and Julio Cesar Cedillo also leave some impression besides filling their spots as demanded.

In conclusion, “A Million Miles Away”, directed by Alejandra Márquez Abella, is a mildly watchable biography drama film which could be more compelling considering the undeniably inspiring human figure at its center. It is surely well-intentioned to say the least, but it is evidently deficient in terms of substance and personality, and it is already fading away as my mind is occupied more with whatever I am going to watch next.