Gosling plays Armstrong as a stoic, the type of man who feels deeply, but is unable — or unwilling — to connect to others. The strain of that repression is evident in every relationship he has, from his wife, who is quietly bearing the burden of their shared loss, and the prospect of another looming every time her husband heads in to work, or his colleagues, with whom he shares a rare bond (that been-to-space thing). One of those men, played by an always excellent Jason Clarke, is a great foil for Armstrong. When Edward (Clarke) tells Neil that he’s just so proud of his son asking questions about physics and space, it highlights just how little we see the latter interact with his sons. Even when he’s home, he’s not — whether out of a sense of grief about the child he loss, or some 1950s male attitude that his job is to work to provide, and not much else. It’s a perfect character for someone who can communicate purely with soulful glances, eyebrow arches, and half smiles, and that’s Gosling’s sweet spot.