Some movies are just lucky to have apt timing.
Whether it’s those that act as a time capsule for periods past. Or ones you sync up at midnight to deliver their climax when the clock strikes midnight. Or the even more aptly timed; Ones which precede events. Films like 2011’s Contagion, 1997’s Wag The Dog or even the likes of The Simpsons. Which at this rate have enough in their backlog to predict the next millennium. Then there’s Project Hail Mary. A film whose ultimate message, is that every choice should be done with hope. Something which this world feels like it needs a lot of right now.
Ryan Gosling portrays Dr. Ryland Grace. An astronaut with a mission and no memory of their identity. As they begin to remember their past, it becomes a race to save the Earth from a dying sun. The film then begins to weave us through Grace’s life before his time in the stars. And how this leads to all the choices made along the way to ensure that the mission succeeds. And I found this particular decision gratifying. Even when the worst outcome may occur, it comes with the choice of hope. That we can trust it will go alright.
Gosling does a stunning job in delivering the performance as Grace. With the majority of this role spent in the past, all alone or in other situations. Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller continue their remarkable run together. Whether it’s Lego Movies. A Spider-Verse. Or Jump Street comedies. Lord and Miller’s well-timed punches pull you into the film.
And if you’ve followed their interview circuit, they’ve been loud and proud of their practical work. Which really helps this film shine in the later stages of our current CGI effects. The plastic, uncanny valley feel is missing for the majority of the film. And its thanks to their large practical sets, on-set lighting and puppetry and animatronics. Puppetry and animatronics? Without spoiling it, like Wilson in 2000’s Castaway, this film will make you fall in love with a rock.
If you need something to believe in right now with a world on fire. If you need to be shown that you can hope that the choice you make leads to the best outcome. Then Project Hail Mary will be the film for you.
You put Lord and Miller in the Directing chairs, Goddard on a script adapted from Andy Weir and Ryan Gosling in the lead...you get gold baby!
