A MILLION MILES AWAY

Here is the easy part of this decision: yes. A MILLION MILES AWAY is that rare thing — a genuinely excellent film that a family can watch together without a single flinch. It tells the true story of Jose Hernandez, the first migrant farmworker to fly a NASA space mission, and it does so with warmth, honesty, and an unashamed Christian heart.

What you'll get is a story of hard work rewarded, of a marriage worth protecting, and of a faith that carries a man through rejection after rejection. Michael Peña makes Jose so relatable that you'll find yourself believing your own dreams are within reach. It's wholesome without being saccharine, and inspiring without cutting corners on real struggle.

The only note for parents of little ones: the film touches on a relative's shooting death and a space shuttle crash. Both happen entirely offscreen and pass quickly. So gather everyone and watch it — this is family movie night done right.

Jose Hernandez grows up on the road, a child of traveling farmworkers with a dream far bigger than the fields he picks — he wants to be an astronaut. When a teacher reads of that dream, she begs his parents to settle down so the children can flourish.

Jose graduates college and lands a job as an aerospace engineer. But the path to space is long, and the stereotyping he faces at work is only the first obstacle. His NASA dream stays stubbornly out of reach — and threatens to strain the loving marriage that anchors him. Can persistence pay off?

Four stars, and here's what earns them. The filmmakers take a down-to-earth approach to a story of celestial ambition, and it works beautifully. Jose becomes a truly relatable character in the hands of Peña and the cast, so that his dream feels like it could be yours.

The film is smart about its subject, too. When Jose tries to blame his heritage for NASA's rejections, his wife rolls her eyes and pushes him to figure out what he can actually change. The resulting look at the surprisingly eclectic skills an astronaut must master is both fascinating and entertaining. And the portrait of marriage and family at the film's center doesn't sugarcoat life's challenges — it shows faith and love carrying people through them. A MILLION MILES AWAY stands tall as one of the best movies of the year so far.

This is a film that wears its faith openly and well. Jose and his family are devout Catholics — shown praying, wearing a holy medallion, keeping a chaste courtship, and building a joyful marriage with five children. Faith here isn't decoration; it's the engine. It's what gives Jose the strength to weather stack after stack of rejection letters from NASA.

What the film exalts, Scripture exalts too: the dignity of hard work, the sacredness of marriage, and the trust that sustains a family through hardship. It offers a beautifully rendered picture of love that doesn't pretend life is easy but insists that faith and devotion can see us through anything. Its pro-family, pro-American, pro-capitalist convictions all sit comfortably beside its Christian core.

The film also names the racial stereotyping Jose faces at work — treated as a janitor and a human photocopier by bosses who underestimate him — but it rebukes that discrimination rather than endorsing it, and lets Jose's diligence answer it.

At its heart this is a story about a dream pursued with faithful, patient labor. Scripture blesses exactly that: "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men" (Colossians 3:23).

Every so often a film comes along that's excellent and clean and true all at once — and this is one of them. A MILLION MILES AWAY turns one man's impossible childhood dream into an hour of encouragement your whole family can share, faith front and center. So here's our answer, the same one we opened with: worth the trip. Watch it together, and let it remind your kids what patient, prayerful hard work can accomplish.