By Matthew Moorcroft

Highest Recommendation

• Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
• Starring Ryan Gosling, Sandra Huller, James Ortiz, Lionel Boyce
• PG-13

The Earth is dying. Something is dimming the sun, and we only have 30 years to really prevent it or things are going to get bad really fast. Project Hail Mary, as a film, isn’t about climate change but it certainly feels like it in some ways; a film about scientists and their anxiety over trying to desperately find a way to stop us heading towards our possible destruction.

You would think a movie with said subject matter would be heavy, somber affair, and while Project Hail Mary doesn’t shy away from sadness – in fact it embraces it at points – this spectacular adaptation by writer Drew Goddard and IP madmen director Phil Lord and Chris Miller (in their first live action flick since 22 Jump Street in 2014) hones in on the unlikely friendship that’s made along the way between two lonely souls who couldn’t be further away from each other. It’s Interstellar or The Martian‘s (also from writer Andy Weir) focus on scientific accuracy and logic mixed with emotional of something like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial or WALL-E, and the results are a blockbuster that cares more about big emotions and sweeping thematics then large action setpieces.

It’s definitely for the better, as Project Hail Mary‘s best traits are in that emotion and those moments of levity followed by tragedy that permeate the film. Ryan Gosling’s lead Grace is an everyman to the highest level, and has to carry much of the flick by himself. It’s not an easy role, but Gosling’s natural charisma and physicality help sell it both comedically and dramatically. Most of this is even more evident on Earth, where his chemistry with players like the no-nonsense but clearly passionate and overstressed Eva Stratt or the friendly presence of Carl, a security guard that Grace gets along with while working on the project, but once the ball drops in space and Rocky shows up, that’s where Gosling’s strengths as an actor really begin to show.

In a just world, the reveal of Rocky and the aliens in Project Hail Mary would be a genuine shocker and one would avoid discussing them here, but in this telling of the story it makes why they would make him the centerpiece of the marketing. Beyond simply being an astonishing piece of tech and visual artistry – some of the best puppet work seen on screen in years, maybe ever – he’s also a wonderfully realized character in his own right. He’s a curious little thing, wandering around Grace’s ship like how we would if we were to discover an alien species ourselves and ultimately on the same mission as Grace. But just like Grace, he’s a lonely soul stuck in the reaches of space, and it’s the companionship that anchors the film together. By the last third, these two are willing to die for each other and it’s believable and wildly moving.

In general, Project Hail Mary‘s celebration of the human spirit and optimism in the face of catastrophe is the film’s most enduring quality, as it leaves you with that sense of wonder from childhood you thought you lost as an adult. And when Daniel Pemberton’s magnificent score soars into sweeping emotions – especially when paired with Greig Fraser’s fantastic cinematography that ranks among the best of the year so far – it’s hard not to get swept away in the emotion of the thing. Lord and Miller’s – and by extension Goddard’s – grounded focus lets the real majesty of the moment be that wonder, that heart. If we go to the movies to get lost in the world for 2-3 hours, which I would argue yes, then Project Hail Mary is one of the best versions of that in a long time.

Look, it’s not hard to make me cry at a film. I’m easily attached to the things I watch and I’m a naturally sensitive person who can sometimes get emotional over a random cat he saw on the street once. But the real miracle is a movie that can make me cry long after I first see it and where just thinking about it leaves me emotional, and Project Hail Mary is now in that very rare camp. It’s a deeply emotional, soaring picture that’s both a throwback to the family friendly blockbusters of the 80s while also maintaining it’s own unique, modern voice, and also an early contender as one of the best of the year. Just a mastercraft of science fiction and blockbuster filmmaking.