There’s a great movie within the just-opened PROJECT HAIL MARY.
Unfortunately, it’s sharing screen time with a sophomoric buddy comedy between Ryan Gosling’s glib scientist and a space alien. The odd couple are astronauts from different planets trying to save their homes from a microorganism that’s slowly eating the energy away of our shared sun. Much of it makes for a gripping and claustrophobic watch at the movie theater, a story with the highest of stakes – life or death – but in the filmmakers’ attempt to alleviate the tension with humor, they’ve overdone it. The humor turns goofy and takes away far too much from the drama. It’s a shame because when PROJECT HAIL MARY works, it works very well.
The plotting showcases a world that looks all too recognizably like today. NASA scientists, headed by the stern Dr. Eva Stratt (Sandra Huller), discover that the Sun is cooling dramatically due to a microorganism known as an astrophage. It keeps growing and eating fields of energy in its orbit and because of its appetite, Stratt and her team surmise that it will cool Earth so much within 30 years that the planet will become a frozen wasteland with the death of two-thirds of the planet’s population. Gosling plays Dr. Ryland Grace, a troubled but shrewd expert on microorganisms who gets assigned with a team of professional astronauts to travel into space many lights years away to stop the feeding of this insatiable astrophage.
The film’s tension is evident immediately as the story opens with Grace already in space, waking up after years of hibernation to a spaceship that he is unfamiliar with, and worse yet, his team has died in transport. Grace seems to also be suffering from some sort of amnesia too and his efforts to acclimate himself to an unknown environment onboard become harrowing. Can he figure out how to run the controls and stay alive? Fortunately, his memory starts to come back, and he’s shown to be quite capable. Along with such revelations, Grace talks to himself to alleviate his fears which also provides narration to fill us in on all that he’s doing.
Soon though, Grace discovers that there is an alien astronaut with a similar mission to save his planet within a stone’s throw. The alien seems to be some sort of stone creature with his movements resembling that of a crab. (A stone crab?) The alien, dubbed “Rocky” by Grace, tries to communicate with the American but their communication skills hardly jibe. Again, there’s rich tension here that keeps us guessing. Can they find a way to interface, overcome their different worlds, and even work together to stop the astrophage? Eventually, the two learn to bridge their gaps via an electronic device onboard the American ship that helps them communicate via pictures and translated verbiage. When the two do start to communicate and make real progress toward their missions together, the scenes are inspiring and even moving. Gently humorous too. But then the laughs start to compile to the point of overwhelming matters and suddenly a lot of their relationship leans into silliness. The two banter, argue, rag on each other, almost like mismatched characters from movies like THE ODD COUPLE, RUSH HOUR and THE HANGOVER. Soon, too many of their scenes start to exude a hokeyness with their cutesy bro bonding marring the seriousness of the story.
The two end up horsing around together – dancing, jiving, vibing – with Rocky starting to feel like a cuddly alien along the lines of E.T. What happened to these two scientists assigned the most serious of missions? Perhaps the filmmakers felt a need to lighten matters since the core plot here is so dark, but would a scientist like Grace really be dropping his guard with all kinds of shenanigans, silly hats, sunglasses, etc. while playfully ragging on his new partner? It feels misplaced too because the alien is a far superior astronaut and scientist than Grace and Rocky’s space acumen alone should keep Grace from treating Rocky like a kid brother. It also doesn’t help that the real time dynamics of said mission to save the galaxy are continually interrupted by lengthy flashbacks showing how this misfit Grace ended up onboard. Granted, those scenes are illuminating, but they go on and on and slow down the pacing and tension that’s been built up in space.
Throughout there’s a remarkable sense of claustrophobia aboard that tight ship, a genuine sense of wonder in all that is occurring in the stars around them, and yes, an inspiring sense of hope watching these two species learn to work together despite all barriers. But if no one could hear you scream in space in 1979’s ALIEN, then the space here is filled with far too many quips. Screenwriter Drew Goddard, adapting the bestseller from author Andy Weir, along with directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, have undermined a lot of the doomsday plotting with glib chatter and excessively adorable moments of buddy bonding. Tonally it feels compromised and even undisciplined. Worse, it feels like a betrayal of the very mission of this nail-biting story.
