In Project Hail Mary, the end of the world as we know it may be nigh, but don’t expect the aura of chic dread to be found in the similarly pre-apocalyptic Lars von Trier film Melancholia. The new film, a certifiable box-office smash, is a vastly more cheerful enterprise, equipped with a cuddly alien and Ryan Gosling, with his kid-friendly charm fully intact.
With the looming doomsday scenario in the film, an adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel, a strange and benevolently sinister force in the cosmos — a plague of dots — is threatening to diminish and kill the sun, and other stars. Half of humanity may be wiped out. It is clearly not a happy future prospect, and one requiring extreme and heroic efforts — such as the perilous and likely suicidal space mission which our goofball genius protagonist Ryland Grace (played by Gosling) has been roped into. Off he goes into the wild blue galactic yonder.
Grace is an erudite molecular biologist in the clothing of a humble and beloved middle school teacher, and a reluctant hero. “I put the ‘not’ into astronaut,” he tells his deceptively calm and determined project recruiter, perfectly played by German actress Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall, Zone of Interest).
Despite the dire setting of the tale, Project Hail Mary, directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, takes its place among such warm and fuzzy space odysseys as Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival and Spielberg’s Close Encounter of the Third Kind — the five-note musical motif from which our new cuddly alien coyly quotes in the film. One of the most memorable aspects of the film is the unexpectedly touching relationship between Gosling’s Grace and the craggy little guy from the planet of 40 Eridani whom Grace names Rocky. Over the course of their shared adventure — basically trying to save the universe — the pair has a close encounter of the deepest kind, often turning poignant and whimsical.
That inter-terrestrial bonding agency is the beating-heart factor amid a dazzling swarm of visual effects in the film, which somehow dazzles the eye without muzzling the humanity — excuse me, cosmic beingness — of the story.
Credentials are in order with the filmmaking team: Lord and Miller were behind another family-friendly cinematic jewel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and screenwriter Drew Goddard also adapted Weir’s novel The Martian, with Matt Damon engaged in a similarly harrowing space adventure. The score by Daniel Pemberton (also behind the Spider Man phenom) is fairly wall-to-wall in its presence and gives a bit too cozy of an emotional tour guide to the narrative.
A surprise musical highlight arrives when Hüller sings Harry Styles’s “Sign of the Times” in a karaoke scene, with a longing hinting at romantic sympathies — or at least emotional connection — with Grace. Who can blame her? At the savory, nougat-y center of the operation is Gosling, whose ambling, self-effacing wit is as made to order here as it was in his “I’m just Ken” role in Barbie.
It’s probably safe to say that Project Hail Mary will go down as the feel-good “end of the world” movie of the season.
Project Hail Mary is currently playing at several Metropolitan Theatres.
