by Heath Lynch, Contributing Writer
Apollo 13, Interstellar, 2001: A Space Odyssey… Science-fiction, space epics are a cornerstone of cinema. The greats don’t come around often, but when they do, these ambitious and captivating tales strike a chord with cinephiles, and pop culture resonates throughout the stars. Luckily, we now have a new contender worthy of inclusion in such an illustrious conversation, Project Hail Mary.
From the literary mind of Andy Weir, the author that brought us The Martian, itself adapted into a feature film, also part of this same illustrious space epic conversation, Project Hail Mary is brought to us from perpetual optimists and career funny guys, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. We follow Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), a disgraced biologist who has resorted to becoming a middle school science teacher to pay the bills, as he is whisked away by the government on a secret mission to investigate why our sun is dying, threatening all life on Earth, and the clock is ticking. While this narrative may tread on classic story tropes you’re familiar with, from the lone man adrift at space, the alien encounter, and the fight to save humanity, this flick combines them in such a fashion that it makes everything feel endearingly fresh.
It’s very clear that Weir has a preferred sense of storytelling as the Venn diagram between The Martian and Project Hail Mary overlaps quite a bit. So, if you’re a fan of that Best Picture nominee from more than a decade ago… Wait, it’s already been a decade since The Martian? Well, I don’t care for that… then you are bound to enjoy this as well. This is a story about a really intelligent and scientific, middle-aged man with a penchant for dad jokes and dry humor trying to live out in space, all on his own, while attempting to solve perplexing conundrums at the risk of great peril. This is brimming with “competence porn” as numerous conversations around science, the understanding and application thereof, and its effect on our universe and our lives, account for a sizable chunk of this film. Though I understand there is considerably less science talk than you’ll find in the novel, based on some of the outrage I’ve heard from people online who are source material devotees, there’s still plenty here to be excited about. Whether it’s contemplations around how Xenon, a gas, could take a solid form, or the implications around non-water based living organisms, there’s plenty of science to be had.
This core formula is what makes Project Hail Mary work. But, what makes this movie entertaining and heartfelt is Gosling and his companion. Honestly, enough cannot be said about Gosling. As an actor, he’s always been very selective about his projects, so we don’t see him often, but when we do he is always incredibly determined to deliver an astounding performance, and this go around is no different. His charming wit and comedic timing, alongside his fragile self-confidence, which is covered up by false egotism, makes him magnetically charismatic while giving off a welcoming sensibility as our audience surrogate. The whole picture rests on his back, and he doesn’t even seem to break a sweat as he rises to the challenge by delivering an exceptional performance. And yet, it’s his on-screen partner, and the endearing connection between the two of them, that makes this such a rollicking good time. A healthy dose of Lord and Miller humor atop of Weis’ already scientific proclivities is great, but it’s Gosling and Rocky (James Ortiz, both voice actor and puppeteer) that make this legendary.
Described as a living rock that walks around on five stone legs, seemingly entirely void of traditional organic matter, with no face, eyes, or mouth, communicating through whale-speak, and sensing the world through echolocation, Rocky is a curious, outgoing, and lovable little boulder spider. Our little alien friend immediately triggers warm and fuzzy memories of other great alien friends like ET. The chemistry between Gosling and Rocky is tremendous. They bounce off one another so well that their friendship instantly feels believable, which directly helps you connect to these characters and this story. You can tell that it genuinely helped Gosling to work with a puppet on set to act throughout this filming, versus playing opposite a tennis ball on a stick in front of a green screening that would be digitally rendered later to create a potentially lackluster alien character. It creates a more authentic relationship, through quirky body language, eccentric verbiage, and ranging emotions, making for a true friendship.
There is a sequence towards the beginning of their interactions together where these two learn to communicate with one another that is the embodiment of this film. Two beings, trying to solve a problem, through scientific method, to find a resolution and move forward. It evokes memories of Arrival and all the beauty and wonder that film conveys but wisely edits down this language barrier element of the story because, as we saw with Arrival, you could spend an entire film’s worth of time trying to have two different species learning to communicate with each other. With Project Hail Mary condensing these events down to five minutes, the film achieves the grandeur of the communicative accomplishment while still allowing for ample amounts of time for us to explore the very real connection between Grace and Rocky, as well as their plight to save their respective suns and solar systems. The dynamic born from this interaction is the heart and soul of this entire film leading to laughter and wonderment, as well as compassion and understanding, culminating in tumultuous sorrow as mission parameters change and relative safety mechanisms go awry, as is oft to happen in space movies.
As great as it is to wonder at science, be drawn in by committed performances, and find hope and happiness in such a beautiful friendship, this movie is not without fault, specifically in the storyline. There’s a series of almost entirely expositional narrative flashbacks throughout the film. These are used in the original novel as a way for us to understand Grace’s memory recall, changing the conditions and context of his mission in real time as he comes to terms with who he is. However, that sense of recall is poorly communicated in this film as Grace never truly reacts to any of the knowledge gained from the flashbacks, making them feel like they’re here entirely for film purposes to inform the audience and not to inform our characters. While it’s still intriguing, no doubt, to learn more about how Grace got to space and why everything is transpiring, it may leave you feeling a little cold at times as you can feel the hand that’s forcing the flashback upon you, particularly towards the end of the film where you have to wonder why we’re even continuing with the flashbacks at all.
There’s a moment in which we learn about Grace’s ‘decision’ to go to space. How he feels as though he’s not brave enough, not smart enough, not skilled enough, to survive and succeed at the mission. It’s possible that in the book this revelation rings true, especially because it’s constructed as a memory and Grace can see how far he’s come, but in the film that’s not the case. By this point we’ve spent nearly two and a half hours watching him competence maxing and speed running this entire mission to such a degree that it feels like no one else on Earth but Grace could’ve possibly handled this mission. So, while it may ring true in the book, this revelation in the film rings incredibly hollow. It’s never good when a film reveals its hidden tendrils trying to pull at, and manipulate, your heartstrings, and Project Hail Mary gets caught pulling the strings like this far too often, making some moments fall flat.
It doesn’t help that the final act of the film is very flawed. Don’t you hate when a movie can’t stick the landing? It’s not that it’s abysmal by any means, but damn if it’s not the weakest part of the picture. People often joke about The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King having too many endings, but Project Hail Mary is out here trying to give Return of the King a run for its money. The difference is though, Return of the King was the culmination of a three film trilogy that encompassed nearly nine hours of collective runtime. That level of narrative, character, and emotional investment earned all these endings. We wanted to see where every character ended up, how everything resolved, and feel the weight of that tale’s end. Whereas with Project Hail Mary, the story ends, and we feel a small bit of catharsis, but then… the store continues anyway. There aren’t more characters to check up on, the central plot conceit has been resolved, our characters got a proper goodbye, the film should be ending, but it doesn’t. This doesn’t just happen once, by the way, but numerous times. I understand that this may be authentic to the source material, but film is a different medium, and in terms of a film this feels clunky and unnecessary as it drags out the runtime to a point where you can really start to feel the weight of the clock. Especially when several of these endings are redundant amongst themselves, accomplishing the same narrative feat.
It’s at this point where I have to reluctantly admit that this feature likely could’ve been better with different hands behind the camera. While I’ve praised Lord and Miller here for their humor, and their ability to craft an authentic and engaging relationship between human and alien, the narrative pacing and editing structure throughout their filmography gives me pause. As with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The Lego Movie, 21 and 22 Jump Street, and definitely their Spider-Man: Into and Across the Spider-Verse movies, there’s a real frantic, kinetic energy to this movie. Jokes, references, plot points, and character beats, a lot of these things fly by at a mile-a-minute, and you just have to grab and hold on for dear life as you try not to miss any of these important moments. While this works from time to time, especially through a joking montage, it under serves the dramatic moments. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still at least one sequence about three-quarters of the way through this film that nearly brought me to tears, and I’m sure it will bring many audiences to that point, but overall, there were several moments throughout the film where Lord and Miller clearly wanted to be more emotionally resonant that clanked off the ground. The catharsis wasn’t there, and that’s unfortunately due a lot to narrative pacing and editing and prioritizing fun, quippy moments over character.
It’s hard not to look at The Martian with Ridley Scott and not make a one-to-one comparison. These are both movies with the same author. Both about isolated men out in space who are very scientifically gifted and use that knowledge to solve problems, while they utilize humor to mask their fear and sadness in an effort to achieve some Herculean task and survive an improbable scenario. But Scott just seems more tapped into the human elements, making The Martian’s ending significantly more impactful. Again, it’s not to say this is bad by any means. I still had an absolute blast at the theater. But I must admit that I left the auditorium a little bit disappointed when I felt I’d seen a better version of nearly the exact same scenario.
A big part of this equation as well is the supporting elements of the story. While Project Hail Mary excels more than I could ever stress in its central relationship between Grace and Rocky, outside of that there’s not much to hang your hat on. Sure, we get to see Sandra Hüller in the flashback sequences as she absolutely rocks the mic at an impromptu karaoke night, but her character is limited to delivering witty, dry satirical responses to Gosling and nothing more. She’s the third lead in the film and she’s as thinly written as a piece of paper. No shade against Hüller though, who does a damn fine magician’s trick of making us care about this piece of paper. No one else in the movie seemingly even has more than five lines of dialogue. While it’s fun seeing Milana Vayntrub, your resident AT&T girl, amongst others in the background, that’s exactly the problem, everyone’s in the background. They might as well not exist. This is another aspect as to why the flashback sequences become increasingly tedious as the film drags to its conclusion. We’re given very little to no attachment, no reason to care, as it’s almost exclusively driving exposition. Which gets stale quickly.
It sounds like I’m dragging this movie into space dust, I know. But all you really need to know is one thing – Project Hail Mary will really come down to whether or not you love Grace and Rocky. Luckily for me, I absolutely love Grace and Rocky. This dynamic is the key to the film, and it sings so beautifully that I’m more than willing to give myself over to this entire experience just to follow their journey together.
It doesn’t hurt that the technicals throughout this film are spellbinding. It’s the tactile nature of the film that makes everything so impressive. Practical, physical sets, lovingly crafted puppetry animation, and brilliant LED screen backgrounds launch the audience into outer space where we become one with the mission. It’s as if we are traveling on the ship itself. Everything feels so real, elevating the stakes of the story. If Lord and Miller truly did one thing right that deserves praise more than anything else, it’s their embrace of the real, the rejection of modern Hollywood filmmaking. Not enough can be said about the fact that this entire film was made without a single use of green or blue screen technology, which has become industry standard for today’s age. Project Hail Mary conjures up memories of Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Dr. No. These classic adventure films across genres that actually took us places. Utilized on-location filming and practical set design to make us feel as though we were on the journey instead of drowning us in a haze of brown and gray mud where everything on the screen is poorly lit and looks so goopy and fake. By creating a lived-in, tactile world we believe our eyes and ears, despite protestation from our brain, that what we’re perceiving is real. A reported $248 million budget has never looked so damn good. Combine all this with some brilliant cinematography from Greig Fraser of The Batman and Dune and Dune: Part Two fame, along with some inventive costumes from David Crossman and Glyn Dillon, and a beautiful and instantly iconic space invoking score from Daniel Pemberton, who has already been a collaborator with Lord and Miller with his Sony Animation Spider-Verse movies, and this film becomes a technical marvel.
It’s worth noting that it’s not just all of these great science-fiction space epics that Project Hail Mary evokes, but it also evokes recent springtime faire that have gone onto critical and awards acclaim. Top Gun: Maverick, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Dune: Part Two, Sinners… What used to never happen has now become an annual tradition post-pandemic. This trend of Best Picture nominees releasing around this time of year when hope springs anew is exciting and thrilling for movie audiences the world over. Calling the shot now, Project Hail Mary will continue this new tradition. Looking forward to seeing this nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars next year, and not just Best Picture either, but a possible nomination for Gosling and a ton of other technical awards to boot. More than that, I look forward to championing and cheering on this film all year long and re-watching it for many years to come.
When all is said and done, that’s what makes Project Hail Mary special. It’s not just that it has its own take on found family and multicultural friendship, or that it provides a glimmer of hope and optimism in an ever-growing dark and bleak world. It shows us what we’re capable of achieving when we all work together and it’s also just a damn powerful and entertaining movie. A science-fiction roller coaster the likes of which we hardly ever see. One that, when viewed on the silver screen, reminds us what it’s like to dream big. The kind of journey that touches our soul while we heartily laugh with glee. That’s what’s exciting about this movie. That, despite some directorial faux pas and weird choices particularly in the third act, Project Hail Mary is everything we strive for and crave in our cinematic entertainment.
Rating: Loved It
Project Hail Mary is currently playing in theaters
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