Project Hail Mary Review: Ryan Gosling Is the Starman In a Movie About Community Beyond the Stars

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One of the moments that is already being cited in Phil Lord and Chris Miller's Project Hail Mary as one of its best is when Sandra Huller, a scientist and government operative tasked with assembling the greatest minds for a mission to save our dying Sun, plaintively sings Harry Styles's "Sign of the Times." The moment comprises many disparate feelings found in the movie: resignation and defeat, acceptance of what can't be changed, and the feeling that for a brief and shining moment coming together can help us forget how shitty the world is.

Lord and Miller, alongside screenwriter Drew Goddard, do a bang-up job adapting Andy Weir's novel of the same name. (Goddard seems to be the Weir screenwriter whisperer, having adapted a previous Weir text, 2015's The Martian.) There's a beauty and sense of awe in everything from the production design – enhanced by an IMAX presentation – to Ryan Gosling's performance that mitigates what can, at times, feel like tonal inconsistency and a lack of interest in the main narrative.

Science teacher Ryland Grace (Gosling) is tasked with working with a group of scientists to find the reason behind what interplanetary bacteria is eating up our Sun. With the fate of humanity hanging in the balance Grace, for reasons he can't recall, wakes up the sole survivor of the mission, going to the planet Tau Ceti to hopefully find a means of saving the Sun. While trying to piece together his past, he encounters a fellow space traveler, a faceless rock alien he dubs Rocky, who becomes his companion and partner in trying to save the universe.

This isn't the typical Lord and Miller venture wherein it's a straightforward comedy. The jokes don't fly a mile a minute. Instead, it treads in the need for optimism in the most bleakest of moments. Time is of the essence and Goddard's script wastes none of it, immediately placing audiences into a complex exposition that sees Grace explain to his young students about the Petrova line, a formation of these bacteria traveling from the Sun to Venus and how these parasites are killing the sun. Huller's Eva Stratt soon arrives to give audiences the doom and gloom stakes, that in just thirty years the Earth's temperatures will drop and people will soon be dealing with starvation.

After this initial setup the movie falls into a series of flashbacks to Grace's life on Earth, trying to help figure out how to destroy the organisms, with his current time on the space craft. This back and forth is certainly beneficial for the inclusion of other actors (or, really, just Huller), but it takes away from the far more interesting plot of what's happening with Grace and Rocky. The viewer knows the who/what/when/why and every return back to Earth is to purely answer: How Grace got there when it really doesn't matter. Grace is on the ship and he's doing some amazing things to save humanity. Huller, to her credit, makes a lot out of a rather minor role; she's the wizened leader bringing everyone together.

Project Hail Mary is, if nothing else, a one-man show for Ryan Gosling and it's a tour de force performance. Gosling not only has to act alone for much of the movie, but also flawlessly interacts with the puppet that is Rocky. Voiced flawlessly by James Ortiz, once Rocky enters the spaceship, the film's tone and momentum changes. The movie becomes a buddy comedy about the pair learning how to communicate with each other and overcome their interplanetary differences to save their respective planets.

Lord and Miller have cited the emphasis on practical effects for this movie and it shows in every frame. Greig Fraser's cinematography is lovely, illustrating the immensity of space and yet how much color and beauty lives within it. But the true brilliance comes in the moments of stress, as Grace and Rocky struggle to survive a careening spaceship, the various colors of light refracting in every direction. There's a tangible quality to Rocky and Grace's interactions – the benefits of using an actual puppet – that makes you stress out when Rocky is put in dangerous situations, which happens a few times.

For Lord and Miller, Project Hail Mary is a movie about how things like differing languages, ideologies, etc. don't matter when our collectives fates are on the line. Rocky doesn't communicate the same way and, let's remember, is a literal rock, but when Grace needs a companion, he's the best thing there is. There's a real Cast Away vibe to the movie, with Rocky the Wilson of the mission, that illustrates humanity's need for friendship and community.

But it is hard to shake the second verse, same as the first vibe between this and The Martian, also a highly science-centric story of man alone against the universe. Characters tell Grace countless times how bad things are going to get in thirty years, which feels less pressing than if it was happening in a few months. And since we have no idea what's happening on Earth during this time there's less a feeling of seriousness than it is just fun watching Gosling and Rocky cut it up. The real punch is when Grace has to make a choice – will he focus on saving himself or saving others – that does feel like a definitive and somber way to end the film, but realistic. This is undone towards the end in a way that feels a bit like a Disney character being like "not dead, actually."

There are countless space movies to choose from and there are moments where Project Hail Mary tries to have the dark human emotion, and ask the big questions, that movies like Arrival and Interstellar have done. There are also moments where it just wants to be a fun space film. The two tones don't gel smoothly, but Gosling is gold. If you see one movie where Ryan Gosling interacts with a giant rock make it this one!

Grade: B-

Project Hail Mary is in theaters March 20.

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