Project Hail Mary: Ryan Gosling – Photo: Jonathan Olley / Amazon
It’s the end of the world as we know it in the rousing sci-fi adventure Project Hail Mary, but gutsy middle school science teacher Ryland Grace feels fine. Portrayed by Ryan Gosling with a perpetual smile in his cheeks and a wisecrack ever at the ready, Grace faces danger armed with his doctorate in Molecular Biology and an unflappable sense of humor.
Both attributes factor into Grace being singled out as “The One Scientist on the Planet Who Can Save Us,” entrusted by an international coalition of governments with solving a molecular-level threat to life on Earth.
Not that he, nor the film, based on the novel by Andy Weir (The Martian), stay grounded on terra firma. His mission largely entails hurtling through deep space, rendered with stunning depth and vastness by co-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, via excellent cinematography by Greig Fraiser and production design by MCU stalwart Charles Wood.
Lord & Miller have produced and/or written a slew of blockbusters in recent years, including the hit animated Spider-Verse franchise, but haven’t directed a live-action feature since 2014 comedy hit 21 Jump Street.
Subsequently, in 2017, the duo were released from their duties as directors on then-upcoming prequel Solo: A Star Wars Story for, reportedly, taking the space Western in too comedic a direction for Lucasfilm’s liking.
With Project Hail Mary, it seems, Lord & Miller have their revenge, inasmuch as this interstellar adventure unabashedly embraces its comedic side, while plunging its intrepid hero into deadly serious circumstances. Gosling is agile enough of an actor to range between Grace’s clear-eyed fearlessness, and near-constant stream of sardonic commentary.
While the actor — not unlike Matt Damon in the film version of The Martian — holds the screen solo for healthy stretches of the 156-minute running time, he also teams up well in several scenes with another nimble player, Anatomy of a Fall star Sandra Hüller.
As Eva Stratt, the even-more-unflappable lead coordinator of this last-ditch, hail-mary, multi-national effort to science a way out of disaster, Hüller complements Gosling’s unserious Grace with a stone-faced seriousness that is also funny.
Yet, Gosling most memorably teams up here with a co-star who isn’t an actor at all, but an alien portrayed primarily by a puppet voiced by James Ortiz. Grace makes contact, and even befriends a knee-high, walking jumble of otherworldly rocks he dubs Rocky. Their trans-planetary partnership evolves with buddy-comedy quickness alongside the whirling action as Grace and Rocky problem-solve their way across the cosmos.
Lord & Miller, of course, can’t resist making visual references to 2001: A Space Odyssey, and explicit nods to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, among other sci-fi classics. In line with Gosling’s performance, the nostalgia and pop culture references are fine-tuned for audience enjoyment.
Eagerness to please, especially with the cuteness of that little walking Stonehenge, is the main threat to the film’s well-balanced intensity, not the comedy. As we learned with the Ewoks, a little bit of cutesiness goes a long way. Too much feels forced.
But Gosling conveys Grace’s sincere attachment to his little buddy, as well as the daunting perilousness of their mission. His distress lives on the flip side of the humble teacher’s child-like awe at the many wonders he encounters.
Whether on an alien vessel or a distant star, the visual effects and sound design are transporting — perhaps not with the tactile detail of, say, Gravity, but powerful enough, especially on an IMAX screen. One vertiginous sequence of Grace hanging off the side of a spinning spaceship just might send chills down your spine and shudders through your knees.
Project Hail Mary (★★★★☆) is rated PG-13 and playing in theaters nationwide. Visit fandango.com.
