At The Movies with James Phelan: Project Hail Mary
Project Hail Mary
Every American wants to be an astronaut at some point in their life. Right? Not Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling). He’s in a career comfort zone as a school science teacher as this film opens. Yet when a microscopic alien cell starts to devour and dim our sun, a theoretical paper from his past thrusts him to the forefront of a global response to save the planet.
Ryland is naturally flummoxed to find himself considered a vital cog in discovering how the star-killing particles operate and why one distant celestial body is proving immune to their attack.
Source novelist Andy Weir specialises in super-smart science fiction with premises grounded in enough scientific fact to please boffins, while still spinning engrossing tales that are accessible and addictive to the average reader.
Weir previously gave the world the bouncy ‘The Martian’, which Ridley Scott brought to the big screen. I’ve often thought if ‘The Martian’ had been an Irish film, odds on the astronaut would have spent two hours crying and trying to irrigate Mars with his tears. Instead, we got a plucky and irrepressible Matt Damon going to the ends of the earth to get off the red planet.
We’re in similarly good company here as Ryland wakes from a medically induced coma on a spaceship to face an onerous mission that he has no particular memory of volunteering for. At first, Ryland is a hapless and pretty hopeless astronaut. Trial and error is a dangerous way to learn alone in space. But soon, Ryland isn’t alone anymore as an alien ship pulls up parallel to his. Such are the high stakes at play here that Ryland making first contact with a stony-faced extraterrestrial doesn’t even seem like his most pressing problem.
In fact, the rock-based alien (imaginatively dubbed Rocky) alleviates the profound loneliness that Ryland was struggling with. Rather handily, the pair develop English as their common language and set to work to save their respective planets.
There are a lot of tones at play here but it’s not tonal or total confusion. Joint directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller are in calibrated control of their creation but the film is many things. It reads as a celebration of science. A love letter to education. A pretty overt plea to the human race to work together. It is by turns thoughtful, joyful, melancholic and also manages to be consistently silly.
There’s no better goofball to have at the heart of a film than Gosling. From pratfalls to emitting effete shrieks, this guy has the comedic chops. However, he also brings gravity (sorry) and immense charm to this solo mission. Let’s face it, he acted opposite something that wasn’t there on set.
Back on Earth in flashbacks, Gosling gets a sparring partner in Sandra Huller’s mission leader who in her own way is as stoic and inscrutable as Rocky. Yet her character is allowed to soften in an imperfect but very moving pre-launch karaoke session where her humanity is tenderly rendered.
Yet there is a gnawing flaw here. Because if people ask you what ‘Project Hail Mary’ is about, you can tell them it’s about three hours. Yes! Three! ‘Project Hail Mary’ is far from the only film guilty of outstaying its welcome by a distance. Why films have to resort to these patience and bladder-testing runtimes is beyond me. Listen, I love going to the cinema but I also love returning home the same day I went.
I was saying a few Hail Marys of my own as this film entered its third hour. The protracted conclusion dragged on so much I’m wondering if I spaced out and just imagined an ending so I could get out of there.
Yet endless endings aside, this film is really recommended. Bring someone who loves science. Or loves nature. Or loves Ryan Gosling. In fairness, the film does deliver an emotional and poignant payload that tugs at the heartstrings and tear ducts. Heck, it even achieves the impossible in drawing water from a stone.
