If I had a dollar for every excellent space movie based on an Andy Weir book about a lone astronaut doing cool science to survive, I’d have two dollars, which isn’t much, but it’s weird that it happened twice.
Based on the novel of the same name, “Project Hail Mary” sees Ryan Gosling in the hot seat this time, starring as Ryland Grace – a man on a mission to save the stars themselves from a mysterious infection known as Astrology. Considering what an absolute banger”The Martian” was, I had extremely high hopes going in, and “Project Hail Mary” still somehow exceeded expectations.
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Even “The Martian,” for all its levity, is ultimately a movie about surviving on a planet that wants to kill you. Mark Watney’s story is about resilience against overwhelming odds. Sure, he says, “I love what I do, and I’m really good at it. And that I’m dying for something big and beautiful and bigger than me,” but he also says quite emphatically, “F*** you, Mars”.
“Project Hail Mary” doesn’t hate space. It loves it and the whole picture is built around a sense of wonder and scientific curiosity that feels so refreshing. Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) faces his share of challenges, to be sure, but his adventure feels more like a buddy detective movie than anything else. It’s not quite “Rush Hour” in space, but it’s not a million miles away either.
The movie starts in media reswith Grace waking up aboard the Hail Mary with no memory of who he is, or why he’s aboard a spaceship. This temporary amnesia serves as a useful, if somewhat clichéd contrivance that helps the audience learn along with our protagonist, as we are treated to periodic flashbacks to his time on Earth, learning the “how” and “why” of the Hail Mary mission.
As Grace and I learn, the sun dies, as do all the other stars around it… except one: Rope Ceti. Earth’s brightest minds come together to build a ship capable of reaching the distant star system (12 light years), hoping to find why this star alone is unaffected. Grace is initially recruited to the team because of his theories that alien life does not need water to evolve (something real scientists have postulated as well), but by chance and sheer bad luck he ends up going on the mission itself.
Grace is certainly cut from the same cloth as Watney, and that mix of comedian and scientific genius makes it easy to root for him. Gosling plays the role to perfection, taking things in a more cartoonish, cheesy direction than Damon, but it works. “Barbie” showed us that Gosling can be funny, and “Blade Runner 2049” showed us that he can be emotional and serious, but here he sticks the landing and delivers both when needed.
The buddy half of that buddy cop movie feel comes from his alien partner in crime, Rocky (and an adorable flashback bromance with security guard Carl).
Named after the Stallone film, and because he’s actually a sentient pile of boulders, Rocky is simultaneously incredibly alien and deeply human, providing the perfect straightman to Grace’s jokester. He is introduced early in the picture, with the first act focusing on the duo’s attempts to communicate. Through some dancing, model building and good old-fashioned trial and error, Grace eventually creates a translation program, which gives Rocky his text-to-speech voice – a stroke of genius that facilitates both the humor and the heart that carries the image.
Voice actor and puppeteer James Ortiz gives a fantastic performance, as does the tight script, and the rest of the supporting cast shown in flashbacks. Sandra Hüller is fantastic as the proper leader of the Hail Mary project, squeezing emotion and humor out of an almost cartoonishly stoic performance, and Lionel Boyce’s Carl is just the best friend we all dream of.
There’s never a wasted moment on screen, with every interaction pushing the plot forward, deepening the relationship between Grace and Rocky, or usually both. The duo realize they’re out there for the same reason – to save their worlds – and set about “sciente the sh*t” out of the problem, as Weir’s other hero would say.
I won’t spoil any of the details from there, but the crescendo hits some emotional highs, with each character sacrificing themselves to save the other. Grace in particular completes a character arc that, due to the non-linear narrative, we didn’t even know he was in until the last act, but it makes perfect sense once it hits.
This beautiful character work is supported by suitably impressive visuals. It’s a wonderful juxtaposition between NASApunk the aesthetics of Grace’s ship – the Hail Mary – and the alien geometry of Rocky’s vessel – which is mirrored in the planets themselves. The visuals on Earth are muted and bleak – sterile science labs, militaristic naval vessels and barren rocket launch sites, but this is offset by incredibly vivid and colorful images of the Tau Ceti system, its planets and the astrophage itself.
Space travel isn’t as cool as it once was, and I can understand why. In the last decade, we’ve gone from “we came in peace for all mankind” to billionaires launching private armadas of satellites (and the occasional celebrity) into orbit. In an increasingly corporate era of space travel, “Project Hail Mary” proudly carries the spirit of NASA, exploring the cosmos and reaching for the stars in the air.
Seeing another bloody Starlink satellite reach orbit won’t inspire the next generation of astronauts, but Ryan Gosling and his nice boulder friend might.
“Project Hail Mary” is showing in cinemas worldwide now.
