Andy Weir is very respected for his detailed hard science-fiction storytelling -as in the concepts and technology and general science of his stories holds up to scrutiny and authenticity with regards to his premises. And it is actually a very compelling method of relating the high concepts he explores. The Martian is enthralling because of this -what would it realistically take to survive on Mars? Add in a bit of tension and humour, and a device with which to essentially educate the audience and it becomes something like a fun theoretical experiment in a science class.
There is less of that in Project Hail Mary, which does at times veer more into the implausible than The Martian -perhaps due to it dealing with the subject of aliens. But it is still intriguing via Drew Goddard’s adaptation, and what it loses in some of the ingenuity to its technical character it makes up for in a significant strength of psychological character. This is a movie about a lonely, insecure man -suffering from amnesia on top of it all- in the dead of space, and the relationship he needs to form with a mysterious alien creature in order to both survive and save the world. It is a more personal and probing story, with greater emotional depth than might be assumed by its simple nature.
It marks a shift for directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller -their first movie since 22 Jump Street twelve years ago and their first non-comedy film, though it does have a current of humour flowing through. The film presents dual narrative timelines -one in the present where astronaut Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) is awoken from a coma on a ship, the Hail Mary, in deep space to find that his two crew-mates have died and that he has few memories as to who he is and why he is here. These memories gradually come back as we see flashbacks of the context that led to this situation -that Grace was a molecular biologist turned middle-school teacher in a time where the Sun has been dimming due to the effects of a microorganism called Astrophage which will result in a devastating global cooling over the next few decades. After discovering how the substance reproduces, Grace is recruited into a special space program, Project Hail Mary -a one-way mission to a star that has not been effected by the Astrophage in the hopes of finding a way to combat it. As Grace in the present discovers, he is not the only scientist on such a mission, encountering an alien he will have to learn to work together with.
This is in fact the core of the story. Beyond the existential stakes and the plausible chemical science, it is really about a lonely boy and an alien. It’s Interstellar crossed with E.T., which is not a bad confluence for Lord and Miller to be working with. And it is also a confluence that they manage to thread the needle on. Goddard deserves some credit for this as well -like his script for The Martian he strikes a good even-handed tone when it comes to the application of humour. The lighthearted dynamic that develops between Grace and "Rocky", named for the fact the creature resembles a cluster of rocks, is never without its sentimental side -nor is it negated by the severity of the action in the competing storyline, marked by several gravitational conversations with the project leader Eva Stratt, played by Sandra Hüller in a performance of perfect melancholy and pathos (yet she is the centrepiece of one of the film's highlight beats -a sweet and moving karaoke number).
Rocky, who appears to be rendered as a puppet effect, leans a little bit into personality caricature a la sarcastic animation sidekick once communication is open between him and Grace -established via Grace associating particular sounds with words and constructing a rough translation through his computer (though how Rocky understands Grace is a little less clear). The slightly fragmented English and deadpan voice provided by James Ortiz with humourous takes on human customs and mannerisms of speech feels quaint in several instances. And yet that genuine connection is made. The visual effects artists succeed largely in making this moving clump of rocks with no facial features into an empathetic character, and Gosling does a remarkable job playing off of it. Just in general this is one of Gosling’s better performances in recent years, with certainly some conscious callback to Half Nelson -his other great schoolteacher role- while exploring with surprising emotional resonance crippling feelings of insecurity, doubt, hopelessness, and again loneliness. Beyond the typical casual quippiness a blockbuster of this scale seems obligated to employ, there is a weight and a tangible sadness in Gosling’s performance, both for the fate of the world and his own sense of inadequacy. When eventually forced into this mission -a certified death sentence- his horror is less about dying and more about failure. A whole aspect to his character hidden from this movie’s promotion, casting him as The Fall Guy when much of the time here he leans closer to First Man.
We learn at the same time as Grace how he got to this point, and the structure of lining the timelines probably works better in the novel, though Lord and Miller do find creative avenues of transition once in a while, such as in a couple tremendous match cuts. Some strong suspense is created this way too. Through the bulk of the flashbacks there is no indication that Grace is supposed to be on this mission himself -in fact we meet the scientist meant to be taking the voyage on instead -and it breeds tension around what is going to happen to land Grace there in his place. There is a considerable degree of fear along with it, as the scenes on Earth set well the stakes and atmosphere of hopelessness -especially through Stratt and her sobering though humane severity.
It might be trite to state Project Hail Mary is a movie about friendship, a theme so rarely expressed in a new or interesting way anymore. Lord and Miller though are no strangers to extracting depth from simplicity (look at The Lego Movie), and they do so solidly here in touching on the relationship between Grace and Rocky as one of necessity and survival. Both are traumatized and both have no expectation of surviving their journeys home -in Grace's case he rediscovers himself and his will to live in part through Rocky. And they are indeed a microcosm of the ideas of friendship and cooperation writ large -working to save their planets mutually in a fashion that neither could have accomplished alone. It is a hopeful spark for a movie that might otherwise look so bleak, and it's no mystery why that is effective right now.
A powerful aid to this is the music by Daniel Pemberton. Accentuating the film's gravity and mood, it is tremulous and beautiful but never so dour that it deflates the humour or the film's critical optimism. It rises well to the scale of Greig Fraser's cinematography -it is the best-looking space movie since Ad Astra and in its often-practical effects-work is visually quite creative and exhilarating. It is impressive too how well the spacecraft is designed, practical but versatile -claustrophobic as it needs to be, but liberating as well. An especially nice corner is a window on which any scenic imagery can be projected, giving Grace (and eventually Rocky) a nice and moving little glimpse of home.
The movie's final beats are undeniably rushed and the conclusion overall -or at least one note of it- feels like the typical kind of comforting Hollywood contrivance added to satiate its audience; and that is entirely unnecessary for what is a rather good bittersweet catharsis to end on. But it is a dampener, not a destroyer. Project Hail Mary may be a little naked in its emotional aims and there are bits where the cuteness of the premise is strained. And still it is a thoroughly entertaining sci-fi adventure with richer merits in tone, theme, and performance than was expected. Its best, most affecting moments speak to a care and ingenuity on the part of its creators, who couldn't have come back from the wilderness stronger. A triumphant Hail Mary.
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