Project Hail Mary
Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) has a doctorate in molecular biology but is teaching middle school science after having published a controversial paper theorizing life is not dependent on water. And yet it is that paper that draws the attention of Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller, "Anatomy of a Fall"), who recruits him for the international team that is trying to outwit astrophage, a microbe which is consuming stellar energy, including our sun's, threatening the demise of humankind within the next thirty years. Dr. Grace makes startling inroads, but when the astronauts' suicide mission loses its scientist, he isn't prepared for what Stratt asks of him for "Project Hail Mary."
Laura's Review: B-
"The Lego Movie" directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller seem unsure if they're making a cutesy derivative space adventure or a serious
scientific exploration, tonal schizophrenia exacerbated by an excessive run time. If you come for the goofy relationship Ryan Gosling forms with an alien who looks like a rock, you should be fine with "Project Hail Mary," although even that can't overcome what feels like padding, but there is just too much suspension of disbelief required for the latter. The film's biggest asset is Sandra Hüller, an actress capable of end running expectations by keeping emotions in check then surprising us singing a Harry Styles cover, 'Sign of the Times.'
Screenwriter Drew Goddard ("The Martian") maintains the dual timeline of Andy Weir's novel, introducing us to Grace coming out of a medically induced coma, spitting out liquids and rolling onto the floor. Clearly disoriented, he discovers his two teammates, Commander Yáo Li-Jie (Ken Leung, HBO's 'Industry') and engineer Olesya Ilyukhina (Milana Vayntrub, "Werewolves Within") are deceased and he is light years away from home. After a moment of despair, Grace performs burials in space, his memory beginning to fill in blanks for us as well as him.
Grace ends up working in a team with government agent Steve Hatch (Lionel Boyce, TV's 'The Bear'). They visit a home improvement big box store, horsing around as they do, then construct a wooden box representing Venus, the planet which has sent a red Petrova line consisting of astrophage toward our sun, figuring out that the energy created by the astrophage can fuel the spaceship they intend to send to the one star, Tau Ceti, that the star-eating microbes aren't causing to dim. Back on the spaceship, which features various levels of gravity and a library featuring giant video panels depicting scenes from Earth, we're supposed to believe that a man who was literally wrestled to the ground and sedated to be put on board can now find his way around and steer this ship on his own. Then he's faced with a bizarre looking vessel (production designer Charles Wood is another of the film's assets) several times the size of his own which keeps pulling abreast of the Mary. Once Grace stops trying to outrun it, a capsule is launched toward him, demanding his first, perilous space walk to retrieve it. Once communication has been established, the alien ship extends a tunnel for Grace to approach it. He'll meet its lone occupant, who he'll name Rocky (voice of James Ortiz), replacing its twee R2-D2-ish tweets and whirs with a computerized voice of its own choosing. The two beings from distant planets have a common goal.
The film has a lot in common with Adam Sandler's "Spaceman," another film about a lone astronaut on a long shot mission to save the world who forges a relationship with an unlikely alien creature, when it's not directly referencing films like "Close Encounters" and "2001: A Space Odyssey." Gosling employs his shaggy charm with his puppeteered costar, the two engaging in lots of hijinks as they try to save their suns. Themes of heroism and self sacrifice are introduced, the latter thwarted with telegraphed false narratives. Considering the film's 156 minute running time, some events, like the explosion which kills Hail Mary's original scientist, are muddled in the telling. And while Hüller gives her last scene hopeful gravitas, Gosling's is, frankly, somewhat ridiculous, like at outtake from a Muppets movie.
Amazon/MGM releases "Project Hail Mary" in theaters on 3/20/26. See it in IMAX.
