Although I didn’t totally love The Fall Guy, I marveled in dismay at how quickly its box-office potential fizzled out. Project Hail Mary, Ryan Gosling’s newest comedically-tinged blockbuster vehicle — directed by the great Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (21 and 22 Jump Street, The Lego Movie, the Spider-Verse franchise) — is hopefully better positioned to make good on its comparably interesting premise and combinations of spectacle, humor, and heart.
Based on the science fiction novel of the same name by Andy Weir, Project centers on Dr. Ryland Grace (Gosling). Ryland (who goes by Grace for most of the film) is recruited out of obscurity from his humble middle school teaching job to assist a top-secret intergalactic mission to solve a sudden crisis involving our sun possibly dying well before what was previously predicted. As head of the “Hail Mary” project, Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller) has to do a lot of convincing for Grace to even agree to do research for the project, let alone later when she has to convince him to join the actual crew of astronauts. The film begins with Grace waking up from hyper-sleep on the “Hail Mary” spaceship to find that the rest of the crew has not woken up, and it appears they never will. Through editing, we then weave back and forth from the mission to flashbacks to Grace’s research and will-they-won’t-they relationship with Eva.
This structure works incredibly well in terms of setting up the stakes without bogging the narrative down in uninteresting exposition. Because the stakes couldn’t be higher when Grace wakes up, we naturally want to see why he’s in that position. Therefore, some things about Grace’s research which might otherwise seem preposterous are transformed into answers to questions rather than raising questions themselves. Essentially, there is a bacteria which is effecting stars, including suns. Grace and his compatriots discover certain things about its behavior, and are meant to travel to a distant star to hopefully learn even more and send their findings back to Earth. However, due to the spaceship’s limited fuel supply (which is the bacteria itself), the crew is unlikely to be able to return to Earth. This obviously presents a real emotional dilemma for Grace when he is presented with the prospect of joining the space flight, leading to a sweet spot of solid dramatic tension in the middle of the film.
But I suppose I’ve buried the lead somewhat. As expectedly charismatic as Gosling is, the breakout star of Project Hail Mary is a very funny alien named Rocky (voice of James Ortiz, also Rocky’s main puppeteer), who looks like a cross between a spider and the Pokémon Geodude without a face. The practical effect of Rocky is outstanding; the scenes between Rocky and Grace are somehow always as funny and/or tender as they need to be. Grace meets Rocky when what appears to be an alien spacecraft won’t stop tailgating him. Grace is eventually invited onboard through a tunnel emanating from said alien ship, and, though translation technology on Grace’s laptop, the two form a strong alliance. Rocky seems to have gone through similar trials to Grace, and they bond over how to accomplish the mission and save their respective home planets.
Rocky is just as much a part of the visual and emotional wonder of this film as anything else, so much so that he becomes its beating heart. Our interest in the specifics of the mission carries us through much of the first half of the film, and our investment in Grace and Rocky’s friendship carries us through the second half. The last thirty minutes or so is where this gargantuan undertaking of a film starts to falter, if only a little. To get into specific story beats would obviously be to spoil the entire film, but suffice it to say that the film does eventually feel its 2-and-a-half-hour length. Still, the film ends on a smart and somewhat unexpected crescendo, and its balance of grandeur and tenderness should deliver audiences exactly what they say they’re looking for in terms of originality and fun. I feel like most of us critics said the same about The Fall Guy, though, so take my predictions with a rock of salt. | George Napper
