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An early scene in “Project Hail Mary” features maybe the most unrealistic image in the totality of the film – certified movie star Ryan Gosling playing a middle school teacher.
Gosling plays the reluctant hero of our film (adapted from Andy Weir’s 2021 novel), Dr. Ryland Grace. He’s explaining to his students (and the audience) the scientific phenomenon that sets up the film’s plot. To put it simply, an alien organism is causing stars to dim, including our own sun – an event that scientists believe will lead to another Ice Age. The problem is, no one can really figure out why or how to stop it.
The first thing you notice about Dr. Grace is that he seems a little too cool – and also, a little too knowledgeable about what’s going on – to be stuck in a classroom telling students about the end of the world instead of out there trying to save it. When he’s eventually recruited to be part of NASA’s last attempt at saving the sun – Project Hail Mary, if you will – we learn he was once a respected scientist before writing a paper with a theory so unpopular that the scientific world ostracized him completely. But the leader of the project, Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller) needs out-of-the-box thinking. And Grace offers just that.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle “Project Hail Mary” – written by Drew Goddard and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller – has to hurdle is buying the idea that someone as handsome and charming as Gosling is so completely down on his luck that he was forced to become the world’s hottest sixth-grade teacher (although, those kids do seem really invested in science, and maybe that’s the reason). But, “Project Hail Mary” is also the type of movie that needs movie star energy to elevate it from good to great, and that’s something Gosling has in spades. With him at the helm, a little Spielbergian sensibility, and stellar visuals, “Project Hail Mary” feels like a triumphant return to classical blockbuster filmmaking.
After first being recruited to work on the science surrounding Project Hail Mary, Grace is eventually asked (or forced, really) to join three other astronauts on what amounts to a suicide mission to the one star in the universe that doesn’t appear to be slowly dying. Grace is the only member of the crew that survives this trip, leading to long, extended sequences where Gosling is essentially alone. When we first meet Ryland, he’s just woken up – shaggy-haired, disoriented, his memories of who he is and why he’s there temporarily gone. The humor is there on paper (a robotic voice asks Ryland to tell them what 2+2 is, and he promptly throws up), but it’s Gosling’s comedic sensibilities that draw the most laughs at Ryland’s mobility comes back to him – he can prat fall with the best of the 1930s slapstick stars, and every high-pitched scream that comes out of his mouth is pure gold.
The extra Gosling sauce, though, is that the humor is never snide, or too self-aware. As a movie star, Gosling’s super power is his ability to combine his humor with a real sense of earnestness and warmth that never crosses the line into treacly. While his initial awakening at the beginning of the film is full of humor, it’s also mixed with a healthy amount of despair as Ryland comes to terms with the fact that he is well and truly alone, those humorous yelps seamlessly becoming cries of agony. You need an actor who can do both, as well as an actor who can be endlessly compelling without a scene partner.
Ryland is used to being alone – he has no real friends at home, and no girlfriend to speak of (also a little hard to believe, but the movie has fun with it – one of the first things Ryland writes down when he’s trying to remember who he is is, “Always muscles?”). So, he adjusts to his newfound position quickly, beginning work on the mission as soon as he remembers the specifics of it all. But, the real magic of the film – and the real magic of Gosling’s talents as a movie star – begin to take shape when it turns out Ryland isn’t so lonely after all.
When Ryland connects with another spaceship floating nearby, he comes across a crab-like rock alien he nicknames Rocky. The introduction of Rocky, who was created through the work of puppeteering, turns “Project Hail Mary” into not just a movie star showcase, but an effects one as well. Rocky has no face, but he’s emotive and, frankly, ridiculously adorable, all through physicality and sound (and later, when Rocky and Ryland learn to communicate, through the voicework of James Ortiz). The practicality of Rocky elevates Gosling’s performance, giving him a physical object to interact with, and it also adds to the old-school nostalgia that the film has in spades. The images of space in “Project Hail Mary” are filled with zooms and shaky tracking shots that emulate something like “Battlestar Galactica.” There’s something tactile about that style that makes the discovery feel all the more exciting.
As the film goes on, “Project Hail Mary” becomes less about trying to save the world and more about two beings starting to feel a little less alone. There’s a Spielbergian quality to “Project Hail Mary” – we see so many films about the fear of alien life, but so few about the wonder of the ways in which that discovery might open up the world. “Project Hail Mary” doesn’t completely capture the complexity or darkness of Spielberg films like “E.T.” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” but it’s hard to not be affected by the earnestness of its optimism. Even at the end of the world, no one is alone.
