Florida's Film, Television and the Arts Magazine
Project Hail Mary - movie review by Lisa Blanck
Ryan Gosling is an actor among an A-list Hollywood fellowship: Rock Hudson, Robert Redford, Harrison Ford, Idris Elba, to name a few. Exceedingly handsome, popular, talented, accomplished actors whose roles cross many genres. Yet none have won the Oscar for Best Actor. Some won for Best Director, some were Best Actor-nominated, but none of these men ever received the golden statuette for a starring role. Perhaps their on-and-off-screen personalities are so affable, their charm so considerable, that each role appears casually easy. You don’t see them ‘sweat’, so they didn’t deserve the elusive prize.
Yes, the year’s just getting started, movie-wise, but I believe there’s no way that the Academy ignores Gosling’s performance as science teacher Ryland Grace in the screen adaptation of Adrew Weir’s best-selling novel, Project Hail Mary. You may remember the film, The Martian; that was Weir’s previous screen adaptation. Alongside James Ortiz’s character ‘Rocky’, the sweet, rockskinned-spider-shaped alien from Planet Erid who becomes his partner in Project Hail Mary, Gosling is a captivating hero with his almost one-(hu)man performance.
Before he became a teacher, Grace’s thesis regarding the potential for the existence of life on other worlds was trashed by the scientific community. Yet his ability to think out-of-the-box and solve problems in the face of all known evidence was what brought Grace to the attention of the global coalition. The coalition’s mission: save our planet from devastation. Our sun is dying. The planet will cool 10-15 degrees in the near future. The fight for food and water will begin. Entire nations will starve. Send in the A-Team.
Scientists from every discipline watch other solar systems die; no one understands what is happening, but they know whatever it is, Earth and our sun are affected. However, there is one planet in the Tau Ceti system that seems unaffected. That system is 12 light-years from Earth. The only way to reach that planet to discover what makes it different is to travel in an induced coma, in a light-speed ship, for almost 50 years.
The trip is one-way. No one is meant to survive.
Watching Gosling’s initial refusal put his life on the line for our planet then be turned on its head by his sheer enthusiasm, and, with the help of Rocky, find solutions, is absolutely infectious. More than the science and immediate peril, it’s the Grace-Rocky bond, their friendship, which is the beating heart of the film. Project Hail Mary is a movie you can bring your family to, which, according to Gosling, is one of the reasons he chose the role.
Though the premise is bleak, the optimism exuded by Grace and Rocky is what makes the film truly special. That and the spectacular visual effects throughout the film. You need to see it on the big screen, preferably in IMAX. The Hubble images, the shaking of your seat from the intensity of their ships shuttling through space, the blast offs, the explosions, make Project Hail Mary a complete yes.
