Josh Reviews Project Hail Mary
Ryan Gosling stars as Dr. Ryland Grace in Project Hail Mary. As the movie opens, Dr. Grace wakes up all alone on a spaceship, far outside of our solar system, with no memory of who he is or how he got there. As his amnesia gradually fades, he comes to realize that he’s the sole survivor of a desperate mission to find a solution to the plague of microscopic organisms slowly dimming Earth’s sun. If not stopped, Earth will enter a devastating ice age. The key might lie at Tau Ceti, a star many years’ journey from Earth, which appears to be the only nearby star not affected by the organisms (called “Astrophage”). This longshot mission seems impossible, but then Dr. Grace discovers that someone else is also in the Tau Ceti system, on a similar mission…
I was a huge fan of Andy Weir’s novel Project Hail Mary, and I am thrilled to report that this movie adaptation is spectacular!! Andy Weir, of course, wrote The Martian, a terrific novel that was adapted by screenwriter Drew Goddard and director Ridley Scott into the equally terrific movie. Mr. Goddard (a wonderful writer who also directed The Cabin in the Woods) has returned to adapt Project Hail Mary, and this movie was directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (the talented duo who wrote & directed The Lego Movie, directed 21 Jump Street, and produced the animated Spider-Verse films).
This is a magnificent movie. It’s visually stunning. It has a lot of humor while telling a story with huge dramatic stakes. It features a home-run movie-star lead performance by Ryan Gosling, and one of the greatest alien creature creations since E.T. in Rocky. (It’s best to go into the movie knowing as little as possible about Rocky, though I understand why the awesome fella has been all over the film’s promotion, particularly in the days post-release.)
I was impressed by how skillfully Drew Goddard was able to adapt Andy Weir’s complex novel for the screen. Mr. Goddard managed to preserve the novel’s structure (with flashbacks interwoven into the events we’re following in space, as Grace, and we the reader/audience, gradually discover how he got there and what his mission is), and all the major beats of the story. (This includes one major extra challenge for Grace in the film’s final 20-ish minutes or so, which is a critical part of the book that I’d worried would have been cut or massively condensed in the movie adaptation. I’ve read some online complaining that this film has too many endings, and I understand that feeling at the end of what is a long movie, but everything that happens after Grace and Rocky first say goodbye is essential to the story, in my opinion, and I’m so glad that was preserved in the movie.) The magic of all of Andy Weir’s novels is the way he grounds his stories in a lot of real science, but he’s able to break it down in a way that is totally understandable for the lay-person reader. And he weaves in a lot of humor, which keeps his stories light and fun. Mr. Goddard has accomplished exactly that balance with the film. Yes, there are a lot of things that he’s condensed. If you want to get more info on how Grace and Rocky were able to overcome their language barrier so they can communicate, read the book! I’m so impressed at how this movie doesn’t feel dumbed down, and yet Mr. Goddard found ways to take what might have been pages in the book and reduce that to a quick beat or maybe just a line. So for example, there’s a line in the movie about relativity (which made me happy as someone paying attention to what little I know about the science of space-travel), but the movie doesn’t spent a long time dealing with that. I think this is a terrific approach. I think the movie is totally understandable for anyone who hasn’t read the book, and for those of us who did, it’s enjoyably faithful. This is a terrific adaptation.
(I’ve read that there was a much longer first cut of the movie, and that even after being edited down there was a version shown to preview audiences that was about 10 minutes longer. I’d love to someday see a longer cut of this movie. I wonder if that would be an even better version! There are definitely places in the movie where, as a fan of the book, I wish they’d given another minute or two to a character beat or a bit of scientific explanation. I totally understand why they felt they could not theatrically release a film that was any longer than this movie’s 156 minute run-time. But I’d bet that a 5-10 minute longer version of this movie would be pretty awesome. I’d love to see it someday. For now, don’t be frightened by this film’s run-time. It absolutely zooms along. I didn’t find it ever boring or feeling too stretched out. Bravo to Lord & Miller and their editor Joel Negron.)
I didn’t need further proof that Ryan Gosling was a great actor. He’s been a stand-out in so many movies, from Drive to Barbie to The Nice Guys to Blade Runner: 2049, and so many more, and he was also amazing in his previous stint as an astronaut, in the wonderful 2018 movie First Man. And yet I was stilled bowled over by how terrific Mr. Gosling is here. He is completely alone for a long time at the start of the movie, and he is absolutely wonderful, mixing playful physical comedy (he takes some great pratfalls) with rich emotional depth (as Grace realizes, to his horror, that he is out in space all alone). And then, for much of the rest of the movie, he’s playing opposite the non-human Rocky. In a moment I’m going to heap enormous praise on the artisans who brought Rocky to life, but let’s remember that it’s the emotional truth of Ryan Gosling’s performance that is a critical component in making Rocky a believable character. Because Ryan Gosling as Grace accepts Rocky as being real, so then do we the audience. It’s a beautiful and stunningly impressive performance. I can’t wait to rewatch this film and get to pay even closer attention to the nuances of Mr. Gosling’s work here.
Then there is Rocky. What an achievement. Bravo to Miller & Lord and their team for deciding to create Rocky primarily as an actual puppet that was physically there on-set with Mr. Gosling, as opposed to using CGI exclusively. I have nothing against CGI — when done well, as in James Cameron’s Avatar films, it can be an extraordinarily useful tool in bringing fantastical creatures to life. But there’s no question in my mind that there is a special magic to the use of physical effects, and clearly the use of an actual puppet for Rocky, with whom Mr. Gosling could interact, pays enormous dividends in the finished film. When we got our first glimpses of Rocky, I did have a moment in which I thought to myself, OK, it’s a puppet. But within a minute or two, that had completely vanished, and I was fully bought in. Rocky was a real character, and I completely accepted that! (There’s a moment in the third act in which something bad happens to Rocky, and there was a woman sitting nearby me who gasped out loud. I thought, wow, this film is really working!!) I love the design of Rocky, and how they didn’t run away from the challenge of creating a character who could emote without having an actual face! Puppeteer James Ortiz and designers Neil Scanlan & Stefano Cordoli and their teem of puppeteers (the “Rocketeers”) have done incredible work. I cannot overstate their achievement. Rocky is an instantly iconic and beloved character. I am in awe. And while we heap praise on the use of practical effects and puppetry, let’s not ignore that there is also a lot of seamless, gorgeous CGI used to bring Rocky to life, so bravo to Arslan Elver and the team at the effects company Framestore. Also amazing: rather than casting a high-profile celebrity to provide Rocky’s voice, Miller & Lord went with Mr. Ortiz! And let me say, Mr. Ortiz is PERFECT. Absolutely perfect. It’s exactly how I imagined Rocky from the book. As in all aspects of this movie, I’m impressed by how faithfully they adapted Rocky’s idiosyncratic manner of speaking from the book (such as his habit of ending questions by stating “question”, or repeating words thrice when excited, such as the memorable “amaze amaze amaze” line), and also his physicality, such as the “jazz hands” Rocky makes when excited. Just spectacular work. These guys had better win a bunch of Oscars next year. (To read more about how Rocky was brought to life, click here and here.)
This movie is really all about Grace and Rocky, but I also loved the work of Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall, Zone of Interest) as Eva Stratt, the mysterious woman heading the global coalition of scientists behind the Hail Mary space-mission. Ms. Hüller strikes the perfect balance of cold professionalism with quiet humor and a deep humanity. I was delighted to see Lionel Boyce (Marcus on The Bear) pop up in a small but critical role as Carl, the security guy assigned as Grace’s handler early in the film. Mr. Boyce brings a perfect deadpan humor to the role that really makes his scenes sparkle. I smiled to see Ken Leung (Miles Straume on Lost) pop up in a small role, alongside Milana Vayntrub, as Grace’s doomed Hail Mary colleagues.
Project Hail Mary was pure joy for me, from start to finish. It makes me so happy to see a great sci-fi movie, one that is an original story and one that centers on the importance of science and collaborating with others. This positive, almost utopian sort of worldview (even in a story about the potential end of the world!) is more important than ever these days. I think the movie skillfully threads the needle to be able to appeal to people who care deeply about having some science-fact in their science-fiction, as well as those who couldn’t care less. Ryan Gosling delivers a high-wattage movie-star performance, and Rocky is an incredible achievement. I can’t wait to see this movie again.
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