Mission (Mostly Accomplished for "Project Hail Mary"
“Project Hail Mary” is an interplanetary sci- fi buddy comedy that’s “Interstellar” meets “The Martian” with a lot more jokes. With a budget north of $200M, it’s by far the most ambitious project from directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who previously made “21 Jump Street” and “The Lego Movie.”
The setup isn’t breaking much new ground in the genre. Something mysterious is causing every sun in the galaxy to slowly die, except for one many light years away. Every government on the planet gets together for one longshot hope, the titular Project Hail Mary, which will send a school teacher (who’s also a secret genius scientist played by Ryan Gosling) to the far reaches of the galaxy. His mission is to study the unaffected star and see if he can save the universe.
I mentioned this is a buddy comedy, and if you haven’t seen the trailer I won’t spoil who Gosling’s buddy is. It’s that relationship at the center of this story that makes the movie work so well, even if other aspects of the production are imperfect.
The screenplay is adapted from a book of the same name, and they crammed as many source details as possible into this two-and-a-half hour epic. That leaves it a bit overstuffed. The science part of the science fiction comes at you so fast it can be hard to keep up with what’s going on. I still can’t quite explain what’s causing the stars to die, even though I spent nearly three hours watching a movie about it.
The film also utilizes a time-hopping narrative structure, cutting back and forth before and after Gosling goes into space. I kept wondering if the movie would be better told in linear fashion, before realizing at the end it’s because they’re holding back a twist. While interesting in the end, it was frustrating when things would gain momentum in space and suddenly we’re back on Earth.
The strongest parts of this movie are easily the comedy and the central relationship between Gosling and his unexpected companion. It’s a sweet, funny story about working together to save the world, something we could be doing a lot more of.
Rating: 8/10
“Project Hail Mary” opens in theaters this weekend.
