Lord and Miller's "Project Hail Mary" Shoots for the Stars and Lands on the Moon

It seems to me that every single major science fiction film in the past 10 years in one way or another is desperately trying to be what Interstellar was. Which, as a mild resident Interstellar hater, I’ve always found pretty obnoxious. And the marketing for the film adaptation of Andy Weir’s stunning novel, Project Hail Mary wasn’t doing a whole lot to ease my concerns of this being another one of those cases. Thankfully within just a few minutes, most of these concerns were put to bed. There’s obviously some Interstellar influence here, but in my, probably unpopular opinion, Project Hail Mary succeeds much more at its thematics here than Interstellar did. 

Sony's new film Project Hail Mary is helmed by Ryan Gosling as Dr. Ryland Grace, a science teacher who is sent into the deep trenches of space to find a "Hail Mary" answer to help save humanity from extinction. To some, this film is made by the ultimate dream team. Directors: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller team up with writer, Drew Goddard, composer Daniel Pemberton, and DP Greig Fraser to bring this new odyssey to a 70mm IMAX screen. I was lucky enough to see this film in IMAX a couple of weeks ago, and the more I’ve sat with it, the more I’ve grown to appreciate it. Not that I had much of anything negative to say about it before, but now that the initial high has worn off, a more genuine sense of appreciation has emerged. 

As an adaptation, it is incredibly loyal to the source material. There are mild changes implemented for screenwriting efficiency, and there’s one major character scene added for Sandra Hüller’s character that really moved me. But for the most part, this is a genuine retelling of the book. I was thoroughly impressed with how they handled the structure here. The book jumps back and forth in time a lot and I was nervous to say the least about how they were planning on tackling that in the film, and I can safely say that screenwriter, Drew Goddard absolutely delivers.

Ryan Gosling is obviously one of American cinema’s current best leading men, and he gives a wonderful performance here. It’s hard to say whether or not it’s top 5 for him, just because of his extensive body of work, but he is still nothing short of excellent here. His emotional spectrum often shifts dramatically in a single scene time frame, and he’s always able to balance it without making his interpretation feel either unrealistic or stale. He’s always doing something new in each scene. I already mentioned the scene added for Sandra Hüller’s character really moved me, but that was still not even my favorite bit in this from her. When I was about halfway through the book, I realized how inspired a casting choice Hüller really is for Stratt’s character. It’s such a particular subset that Hüller naturally embodies better than almost anybody working today. She probably gives my favorite performance in the film.

Daniel Pemberton’s score is deeply whimsical, and unlike a lot of modern sci-fi scores that I can think of. I do think it’s a bit overbearing at times and can interfere with the work that Gosling in particular is doing, but at the same time, the sound is so uniquely Pemberton and covers such a wide range of emotions, that even when I think it could probably be removed, it still sounds excellent. 

The space visuals by Greig Fraser are so magnificent that it makes the scenes that take place on Earth look bland by comparison. There is a clear intentional contrast between the two settings that is supported thematically, although I do wish there was a bit more work done to the Earth sequences to make the visuals pop a little bit more. With all of that said though, as mentioned, there are a couple of scenes in space in this film in particular that are probably all timers for the genre. The unconventional use of colors like green, pink, and red is inspired and jaw-dropping in IMAX.

Tonally, the film does a beautiful job at capturing the hopeful, more jovial nature of the book. I do wish that it leaned a bit more into the more existential debate elements that lean more cynical from the book. Especially considering it would make the more hopeful elements to the story and its conclusion all the more impactful. But given how dense the novel is, and how little time they have here to condense things, they still manage to capture all of the key bits that they need to.  I’m not on the hype train where some people are calling this "the greatest film of the year" and "one of the best sci-fi films ever" or anything. There are certainly elements that, given its adaptation, hinder it just ever so slightly, but it’s hard to imagine much of anything about this being improved in that arena.

Overall, Project Hail Mary is a phenomenal time at the movies, and one that the whole family can actually go to and enjoy. This upcoming weekend, make sure to take the kids, this is the kind of movie magic they’ll remember forever.