Okay, let’s see what all the hullabaloo is about. I was looking like fading this movie, but the word of mouth is just too good! So, I’ll get out of my warm bed to go watch Ryan Gosling be an astronaut… again! Yes, I remember First Man 💁♂️ I don’t know what it is about Gosling but as a consistent A-lister, I don’t gravitate to him one way or the other – a bit like Emma Stone, for me, who incidentally make for a very iconic pair (Crazy Stupid Love, La La Land). But I did love The Martian, from 2015, and the basis of this production was written by the same author as that. Another lone space mission where the guy has to “science the shit out of it”! Hot dang!
And I failed to realise that this’ll be one of those movies from my favourite genre, where people are great at their jobs 😍 Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) wakes up in space with no memory of what he’s there for, and nobody else to help him. And although it’s humorous, watching Grace bumble to put on his space suit and fiddle with computer switches, I just kept thinking that if he were a trained astronaut, even if he can’t remember his purpose, wouldn’t be still know the proper procedures of space travel? Wouldn’t he be like Jason Bourne, unsure of how he knows these things but knowing it, nonetheless? Anyway, the story has got me, because it’s eventually explained that he doesn’t know anything but the science, and all my doubting and questioning melts away anyway, as soon as Rocky shows up. The awe with which I sat and watched Rocky’s spacecraft building that bridge across ships; it’s remarkable, like something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey – foreign or futuristic technology unlike anything ever seen. The production design and score for this movie are absolutely exceptional, and I should note it now before I forget. First contact with Rocky is also enthralling, before their communications initially makes this alien lifeform sound no more intelligent than Dug from Up; and eventually settles into something spectacular, as companionship becomes friendship. And this movie is hard to pin down – science adventure and apocalyptic thriller, that’s also a buddy comedy at times which takes us down a gentler heartwarming path.
I surprised myself by how little I was upset when Rocky looked gone for all money, sacrificing himself for Grace and balancing out the ship. I remember I bawled like a baby twenty-odd-years ago when Tom Hanks lost his volleyball in Castaway, and for a while it looked like the same fate was imminent for Gosling’s pet rock 🙃 But this movie is actually seamless at setting up a typical 3-act structure with cathartic callbacks – it might be the best I’ve ever seen. And I mightn’t know the dictionary definition of what I’m talking about, but you know what I mean – you have an introduction (1), and then the meat of the story where everything seems to be going well, before a drastic lull hits (2) and all looks lost until a big climatic finale confirms everything will be okay (3). That’s your 3-act structure. Specifically, it didn’t feel conventional when an explosion wiped out the planned flight schedule, or when Rocky seemed to pass away on the Hail Mary; these felt like authentic events that may’ve occurred along this operation, instead of artificially manufactured hardships for the script. Rocky and Grace also set up how monumental it is to sacrifice oneself for the sake of others, which Rocky then displays in turning the gravity back on for Grace. And the sleep and the tapping, set up as pivotal to Rocky’s species, and become a must as Graces nurses Rocky back to health. Furthermore, although this is a book, and one which I haven’t read, I think a movie still has to set up empathetic visuals that may or may not be accredited to the original text, like the dancing introduction and goodbye, and the arm rubbing to signify Rocky’s language 👍 Coincidentally, all of this is a long way of saying that Project Hail Mary feels fresh and awe-inspiring, and I feel like we’ve been crying out for something such as this amongst the onslaught of remakes and sequels for a long time. What’s Andy Weir’s next book?
I want to talk about the significance of one important scene, as I’m writing this, and that’s the moment operations director Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller) decides to join her crew for the karaoke party. She states she doesn’t like social gatherings, and it’s made clear that she’s afraid to sing, but she does it anyway – a simple scene that a lesser movie might’ve cut or avoided since it doesn’t purposefully project the plot of the story forward. But in a narrative about human dedication, I think the scene is fantastic to contrast when later, Stratt demands Grace board the ship underprepared. Because in that moment, it would be easy to mistake Stratt as desperate, and dastardly, pushing Grace to do something outrageous that he does not want to do. But I think in contrasting the karaoke scene, we see that it is Stratt’s exact nature to fulfil the act of duty, and that she isn’t asking Grace to do anything that she would not do herself, although on a larger extensive scale. She’s less shafting him, callously, and imploring him to do his part for the human collective 💪 Moreover, while I’ve been banging on in my rebuke of DEI in my reviews lately, might I take a moment to acknowledge that here we have a really cool black guy named Carl (Lionel Boyce); intelligent too. And we have a global space endeavour headed by a commanding and pragmatic woman – both in which feel congruent to the story, almost like it’s possible to achieve representations without even making a big show of it 😮 That’s what I like, that’s what I’d aim for if I were a budding movie setting about to be welcoming. Because I’m not against DEI, as false as that may sound – I’m against the high-and-mighty pedestal it’s often put upon.
Project Hail Mary also felt long but never wore out its welcome, which is a marvelous tightrope to enact. And yes, I will have to get over myself regarding Ryan Gosling, for I don’t look forward to a Ryan Gosling movie in the way I do a DiCaprio, but maybe I should, for Gosling’s versatility lends to him picking amazing projects that he easily makes himself suited for. This movie prompted me to brainstorm Gosling’s best movies, and so quickly I made a list – Lars and the Real Girl, Barbie, The Big Short, Crazy Stupid Love, The Nice Guys, La La Land, The Place Beyond the Pines… What am I missing? But most directly, is how immediately Project Hail Mary catapults onto this list as essential Gosling viewing, in a career now well established and booming. And because I like to “compare the pair”, between this and The Martian, I doubt I can split them, as both are ripping watches, and remarkably different in tone considering so much of the same subject matter is space and science. I hope Lionel Boyce really takes off – the actor who played Carl. I can see him doing some damage on the acting scene. And what an eclectic filmography we have from directors Phil Lord and Christpher Miller, who it seems predominantly stick to animation, with The Lego Movie, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and the ‘Spider-Verse movies under their belt. I may not have ever written their names before today, but geez, thanks for delivering an incredibly original film, displaying a reach of talent out the wazoo!
4.5
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