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The science-fiction young-adult romance "The Space Between Us" is a lot like its protagonist — in that both seem to have gathered all understanding of human nature, and the thing called love, from watching old movies.

It takes 16 years — or at least it seems that long — for us to meet that protagonist, Gardner Elliot (Asa Butterfield). First we have to wait for him to be born, on Mars, to Sarah (Janet Montgomery), commander of the rocket taking the first permanent settlers to the red planet. When Sarah dies in childbirth, the project's visionary founder, Nathaniel Shepherd (Gary Oldman), decides to keep Gardner's existence a secret, to keep the news from ending the mission.

Finally, we get to the present — or the future, around 2034, but everyone still drives the same cars — and Gardner is a bright, inquisitive teenager. His only friend on Mars is a robot (voiced by the film's director, Peter Chelsom), and his surrogate mother is another astronaut, Kendra (Carla Gugino), whose last name was apparently omitted in NASA budget cuts. He has an online pen pal, nicknamed Tulsa (Britt Robertson), a jaded orphan who has been bounced from one foster parent to the next.

With Kendra's help, and some metal implants in his bones to deal with the stronger gravity, Gardner hops on a shuttle back to Earth. Defying Shepherd, who comes back to the project after a long time in hiding, and the NASA experts, Gardner escapes from quarantine in Florida and heads to Colorado to find Tulsa.

The slow-building romance between the naive yet charming Gardner and the sarcastic but lovelorn Tulsa does happen, which is nice. Alas, the strained script by Allan Loeb ("Collateral Beauty") sandwiches the romance in a perfunctory chase plot, as Gardner and Tulsa travel across the Southwest to find the man Gardner thinks is his father, with Shepherd and Kendra in pursuit.

Butterfield ("Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children") and Robertson ("Tomorrowland") do have some charming chemistry, and Chelsom's workmanlike direction gives them some nice moments together. Alas, they are tethered to a script that weighs down the romance instead of letting it fly effortlessly to the clouds.

Twitter: @moviecricket —

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'The Space Between Us'

A teen romance blossoms between a Mars-born boy and a jaded Earth girl in this messy and frenetic science-fiction drama.

Where • Theaters everywhere.

When • Opens Friday, Feb. 3.

Rating • PG-13 for brief sensuality and language.

Running time • 120 minutes.