Project Hail Mary Review

Ryan Gosling Anchors a Charming, Nostalgic Sci-Fi Crowd-Pleaser

By: Marc Kozak

Project Hail Mary

Ryan Gosling Anchors a Charming, Nostalgic Sci-Fi Crowd-Pleaser

By: Marc Kozak

It’s always exciting but a little bittersweet whenever there’s a new big-budget sci-fi movie about space travel. It’s a shame that we get so few of them these days, even if it’s not hard to understand why – there are significant financial and production hurdles to overcome in order to successfully immerse viewers (and hard-to-please astrophysicists) in a believable reproduction of the vastness that exists beyond the boundaries of our own planet. Still, there are few (if any) other genres in the history of the medium that have provided as many awe-inspiring and memorable images. Scenes from movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Apollo 13, and Interstellar are forever burned into our brains, imbued with the rare ability to spark our imaginations and sense of wonder in a way that can make even the deepest cynic believe that anything is possible.

The good news is that Project Hail Mary immediately joins the ranks of those classic outer space epics, effortlessly evoking the feel-good magic and emotional appeal of your favorite Steven Spielberg and George Lucas adventures. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the directors responsible for similarly refreshing movies like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and The Lego Movie, are proven experts at crafting breezy, heart-warming tales that make us laugh and cry in equal measure. They are squarely in their wheelhouse here, taking the goofily optimistic 2021 novel by Andy Weir (author of The Martian) and faithfully adapting it into a crowd-pleasing, popcorn blockbuster that revels in its sense of nostalgia, gleefully transporting viewers back into a simpler time when we weren’t afraid to look at the stars and dream of a better tomorrow.

It helps to have the ultra-likable Ryan Gosling at the movie’s center. Project Hail Mary further solidifies the once-stoic dramatic actor’s transition into full-blown comedy star, providing the gifted 45-year-old Canadian with a perfect showcase for his physical humor and deadpan comic delivery. Lord and Miller know that there are few things funnier than Gosling yelping out a high-pitched scream or barely containing a shit-eating grin, and they play to all of his strengths for maximum effect. If there’s any real complaint here, it’s that any moment that threatens to approach a level of serious drama is often undercut by the movie’s desire to stay firmly in a zone of good vibes. It’s a slapstick, quip-happy approach that comes directly from the source material, for better or for worse.

" Project Hail Mary immediately joins the ranks of those classic outer space epics, effortlessly evoking the feel-good magic and emotional appeal of your favorite Steven Spielberg and George Lucas adventures.  "

The premise is appropriately silly in large part due to how spectacularly serious it is: scientists have discovered that the sun is dimming thanks to a rapidly breeding star-eating microorganism called “astrophage”. There is speculation that this will cause Earth to catastrophically cool within 30 years, unless someone can figure out how to study and destroy the root cause. In true Armageddon style, the planet’s best hope is not an incredibly smart and credentialed scientist, but Ryland Grace (Gosling), a doofus middle school teacher who used to be a biologist until his controversial views got him blacklisted from the industry. Obviously, those same views make him the perfect candidate for government agent Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller), who approaches the befuddled Grace about joining a top-secret project tasked with combating the astrophage.

Drew Goddard’s script (and the novel itself) doesn’t want to waste any time getting our hero into space, so the movie’s opening scene takes an in medias res approach that positions Grace as the sole survivor of an interstellar expedition, suffering from a bit of convenient amnesia that leaves him wondering exactly why he is in a space shuttle. It’s a bit of a clumsy approach, but it allows the viewer to discover the stakes along with Grace, even as frequent flashbacks eventually bring us up to speed on the events that led to his present circumstances. There are some delightfully fun scenes that mix sci-fi pseudoscience with scientific experimentation, resulting in the discovery that the astrophage can also be used as a wildly effective fuel source for interstellar travel. Before you know it, a series of classic shenanigans make it so that Grace has no choice but to join the small crew of Project Hail Mary and rocket off to a distant star that shows signs of resisting the astrophage, potentially holding the secret to humankind’s survival.

It’s the incredible Sandra Hüller as the reserved director of Project Hail Mary that really keeps all of the early silliness from getting too out of hand. Her quiet speech and mannerisms are tinged with a touch of sadness and doom, as if she doesn’t believe that anything they are doing is going to work. One of the movie’s standout scenes captures a moment when she briefly lowers her guard during a night of drinks and karaoke amongst the crew, as she wordlessly shuffles into the room and wows her shocked crew with a performance of Harry Styles’ “Sign of the Times.” It’s a rare moment of emotional vulnerability that effectively reminds everyone what it is they are trying to save, and a welcome moment of grace in between all of the action and banter.

As the narrative catches up to Grace adrift in space, the movie’s second half turns into a sci-fi buddy comedy once Grace discovers that he is not the only species that has traveled to the astrophage-immune star in search of answers. After a brief and very funny starship “chase,” Grace encounters and eventually befriends a small, faceless alien creature that looks sort of like a spider with hard edges. The pair spend several amusing scenes learning each other’s language and getting to know each other, bonding over their shared mission of saving their respective planets from destruction. The alien – dubbed “Rocky” – makes all sorts of cute clicks and beeps in classic sci-fi fashion, and is wonderfully brought to life by Star Wars veteran Neal Scanlan and his team of puppeteers. It’s hard not to love Rocky, especially once Grace is able to translate his “voice” through the ship’s computers.

There are plenty of action scenes that include Gosling hurtling perilously through various tunnels and hanging on for dear life on the exterior of his shuttle. It helps to have master cinematographer Greg Fraser on board, whose resume includes other instant sci-fi classics like Rouge One and Dune. These moments of high-stakes action are wonderfully beautiful and tense, punctuated by Daniel Pemberton’s appropriately epic score, but they can’t help but feel a little old hat. Really, it’s the movie’s quieter moments that are far more interesting. Grace and Rocky’s friendship is built and effectively sold with several moments of quiet contemplation and real connection, as the two have a lot more in common than they expected. It all leads up to an initial climax that really feels powerful and earned, even if it is eventually softened (perhaps cowardly so) to make sure everyone leaves the theater feeling good. It’s hard to blame or credit Lord and Miller for this as it’s an ending faithful to the book, but it would’ve been interesting to see them put their own stamp on it by changing things up a bit.

Still, it’s hard to complain too much about it; Project Hail Mary is primarily interested in delivering a good time, and it does so successfully. There are plenty of interesting and entertaining things going on here, enough to rarely make you feel the movie’s 156-minute runtime. All filmmakers adapting existing material must ask the same questions: is it better to stay true to the source material in order to give the fans what they want, or make a few ambitious tweaks to potentially make things more interesting? Lord and Miller have gone the safe route with Project Hail Mary – it may not stand up to the highest peaks of the sci-fi genre because of it, but it’s hard to see many people complaining about it either. Sometimes we just want popcorn because it’s good and we know what it tastes like.