Project Hail Mary: A Fun, Emotional Space Exploration Drama

I’ve heard plenty of spins of the idea that Project Hail Mary is the type of movie Hollywood needs to start making again, and to an extent, I actually agree with the sentiment. No, it’s not as though the last five years haven’t played host to some of the greatest blockbusters I’ve ever seen, but Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s novel adaptation contains something these other movies don’t: childlike wonder. It’s basically Interstellar if it were crossed with a family film, but don’t hear me say that and then think it’s somehow childish. It fluctuates between silliness and beauty and comes off as entirely sincere, whether that’s in spite of its levity or because of it. Ryan Gosling plays Ryland Grace, an elementary school science teacher whom the government decides to ship to the other side of the universe, and Grace has an awkwardness to him that you sense he loves to play into because it makes his students laugh while annoying the suits who want to send him on a mission into the deepest, darkest corners of unexplored outer space. As far as adult content or the lack thereof goes, this is also a remarkably clean movie, one that has kids in mind. That could be because it knows they’ll be the ones most amazed by it, making them perhaps the most valuable audience it could have reached.

Before the government sent Grace to space – say that five times fast – he had to keep up appearances for his students, but when he awakes from the medically-induced coma while drifting through the cosmos, his hair is long and unkempt, sort of like Thor from Avengers: Endgame if he wasn’t fat. The movie has a lot of fun with his disoriented state when he wakes up, forcing him to try and do all the normal functions that an astronaut needs to be able to, all while the poor man is practically hung over. To make the comparison again, Project Hail Mary has an innocent charm that Interstellar lacked, though that’s by design. Grace was the type to be everyone’s favorite teacher, so you get the sense that he’s in a little bit over his head here, but because there’s only so much he can do about it, he shaves his facial hair and gets to work.

This movie has a tongue-in-cheek quality that you won’t find in other outer space movies. Its campy needle drops are silly reminders of an earth that Ryland no longer lives on, and they’re silly because he’s a silly person, but silly in a way that feels right for a science teacher who spends much of his time talking to young students. There’s a wonder to this movie’s silliness, like when Ryland dances with and then befriends a rock-like extraterrestrial creature named, get this, Rocky. The friendship between the two is so genuine that it’s surprising. Through ups and downs, the two of them are always together, spending brilliant time with one another in the vast cosmos while confusing thumbs-down for thumbs-up.

Much of the movie is devoted to these two learning to communicate, kind of like Arrival if we were the aliens and the species we were visiting had a sense of humor. Seeing Ryland and Rocky bond over shared experiences and surprisingly similar memories is touching. Ryland is the core of this movie, and Gosling’s awkward, likable charisma makes the entire thing fun and lighthearted without derailing its deeper and more intimate moments. The goofy moments add depth to a friendship that many other movies would have tried to harden through shared trauma, and the soundtrack of this movie is a great representation of its emotional intelligence and nuance. It’s epic, yes, but it’s sometimes more evocative of an eccentric comedy. The movie flips back and forth between Ryland’s amazing time in space and his difficulties in a past life on Earth, and the soundtrack shifts accordingly. The whiplash of emotions isn’t just a whiplash, either: Project Hail Mary leverages it to surprise you with real depth and nuance.

It also recycles a lot of things you’ve seen in other sci-fi or space movies, and it’s sometimes impossible not to think about the movies that inspired it  – namely The Martian, E.T., and Arrival  –  while you’re watching it; I sometimes felt like I was shopping at some cinematic thrift store. Its emotional elements are more thoughtful than the forceful pleas of Interstellar, but it also isn’t quite as visceral an experience because it isn’t quite as inspired or original. Still, it’s a more colorful space movie than, say, Gravity or even The Martian, another film adaptation of one of Andy Weir’s books, and it contains a lot of moments that would make for a fitting desktop wallpaper. It’s a heavily stylized experience movie, and I doubt you will remember much of the overarching story once you walk away from it. What you will remember is how it made you feel. You will remember Ryland, Rocky, and the tender feelings that the two of them shared as their friendship blossomed. No matter how young or old you are, I get the feeling that this movie is going to come alongside a lot of your good memories to remind you of why you hold them so dear.

For as vast as the cosmos are, Project Hail Mary seems most interested in the small corner that is Ryland and Rocky’s friendship. Watching the two of them is like watching a more grown-up version of a kid’s science show where the fun scientist has a funny little creature sidekick, a show that bridges the gap between the wonder of childhood and the knowledge of adulthood. It doesn’t necessarily aim to wow you with space in an all-too-familiar way, choosing instead to impress you with the little things. It’s a surprisingly moving approach, in a lot of ways because it’s not what you may be expecting. The journey is just as important to this movie as its final destination.

Project Hail Mary – 9/10

Psalm 115:16