movie review: Project hail mary

A rock and a far place
Review: Project Hail Mary 

I met Ryan Gosling once. He’s not a real gosling. I say “met”, it was more that we coincidentally checked into a hotel in Thailand at the same time. He was there to film the action movie Only God Forgives, and I was there for much less glamorous holiday reasons. We stood next to each other and signed forms. I caught his eye for a second, we politely nodded to each other, and then he went to his enormo-suite with hot and cold running caviar, and I to my basement utility cupboard. 

I’ve since forgiven him for making me feel very insecure about my looks and general levels of success for about two weeks, and though I didn’t know much about PJH going in, I had an open mind. I’m a perennial fan of the Sad Space Boy™ genre and honestly they’re my in-flight go-tos if there’s a Big Chris Nolan or Ridley Scott astral odyssey I can whack on for a few hours. 

A lot of this film hit that spot for me. All of the hype you’ve read about the cinematography is justified, and if you think you might like this film, then - trust me - get to a big screen before it leaves cinemas. Greig Fraser’s visuals (under the direction of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller) are magical, decking the spacecraft out in cosy earth tones and warm lights as our hero is forced to leave home comforts behind. 

Gosling (again, he’s not a real gosling) is scientist-turned-teacher Ryland Grace, who wakes up on said spaceship light years from home with no immediate recollections. As his memory returns, he remembers his mission: Earth’s sun is dying out. He must use his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save the planet. You know. The usual 'hopecore' set up. 

The story is told in parallel timelines, the flashbacks standing in for Grace’s memories returning while also deftly delivering exposition. Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of Fall) is a quasi-covert government spook who recruits Grace to train her team, promoting him against his will to crew as disaster strikes. I was fully engaged with this strand of the film. Gosling’s duck-(goose?) out-of-water goofiness (goosiness?) (sorry) is a great vehicle for his obvious natural charisma. The rest…well, your mileage may vary. 

Grace encounters and makes contact with an alien, who it transpires is on an identical assignment. Things dumb down quite a lot. Imagine if some people at Pixar watched Interstellar, Arrival and 2001: A Space Odyssey and then made a mash-up of those plots, but aimed at six year olds. Quite a large chunk of the story is this. 

Listen, Grace and Rocky (the name given to this stony crab-like creature) getting to know each other and working out their tactics to overcome an existential threat isn’t without charm. It’s cute, even. I just personally felt that this made for such tonal whiplash that - for me - it was like watching two different movies. We cut between quite adult and emotionally-heavy death scenes in one timeline to, essentially, a man playing with a plush toy - I just found it jarring, is all. 

In short, your enjoyment will probably rest on how tolerant you are to blatant pandering to a child audience. If you have young ones and already watch a lot of kids’ TV, then it might not even register. Even if you’re not on board for this element, there’s a lot to like here, particularly the visuals. Bask in a cinematic celebration of aesthetics and the pitch-perfect Gosling (he’s not a real gosling) and Hüller performances. You might have a rockier time with the rest of it.

Project Hail Mary is playing at cinemas across the city