Imagine waking up alone in space, with no memory of how you got there.
This is what Ryan Gosling’s Rylan Grace wakes up to in the beginning of Project Hail Mary.
Based on Andy Weir’s award winning 2021 novel of the same name, the movie is an engaging space odyssey. This surprised me as I am normally not receptive to sci fi movies. Jargon overload overwhelms me to the point of distraction and space battles just don’t excite me.
However, Project Hail Mary is not your average space movie. It focuses on the human elements of the story.
Grace is a high school teacher, having retreated to academia after a disastrous research paper made him the laughing stock of the molecular biology community.
However, the Sun is dimming due to the parasitic organisms called astrophage. The astrophage’s consumption of the sun’s radiation has dire consequences for Earth – a potential ice age that will wipe out civilisation.
Grace is recruited to study the astrophage. In doing so, he makes a discovery that leads to a potential solution to save the Earth. Unfortunately, the solution is a hail mary – a last ditch effort with minimal chance of success and zero chance of survival.
It gets worse. Grace is forced to be part of the team after a tragic event. He protests but there is no time to tutor a different scientist in astrophage biology. So Eva Stratt, the commander in chief of the operation, forces Grace into the ship.
Sandra Huller’s portrayal of Stratt is phenomenol. Huller’s steely gaze tells us everything about the leader – authorative and decisive. A leader with the focus needed to spearhead an Earth-saving mission. Yet in the quiet moments, Eva is stoic and pragmatic.
A surprise scene in the bar is a standout. We know that Stratt does not want to be there, yet she knows she needs to support her team’s morale. So she acquiesces to karaoke night and delivers a haunting rendition of Harry’s Styles’ Sign of the Times.
While Huller was fantastic, most of the buzz surrounds Gosling’s portrayal of Grace. And it is well-deserved.
After all, the film mostly rests on Gosling’s shoulders. With no other human actors to bounce off, Gosling’s calibre shows in his portrayal of the unwilling hero. While he is earnest in his efforts to understand astrophage, his scientific brilliance does not make up for the aptitude and training that astronauts require. He exudes the anxiety of isolation married with post-coma amnesia. He is so in his head that he downplays the magnitude of his work.
But then he meets another living being.
The movie brings an unexpected friendship to the forefront. On his way to Tau Ceti, Grace encounters an alient spacecraft. After ascertaining that the ship is not hostile, he nervously approaches it and comes face to face with an Eridian. Grace creatively christens the rock like creature… “Rocky”.
Through some serious fieldwork, Grace learns that Erid, Rocky’s home planet, is also facing certain extinction thanks to the astrophage. So Grace decides to combine his scientific know how with Rocky’s engineering prowess to hatch a plan to save their planets.
While they are on a critical mission, the friendship between Grace and Rocky is almost father-son like. Grace is understandably frustrated at times trying to teach Rocky. However, moments of playfulness and paternal patience cement their bond.
I found myself smiling throughout the majority of their interactions. Partly from the relationship dynamics and partly from the moments of humour stemming from cross-galactic misunderstandings. I wanted this interstellar partnership to go the distance.
On the topic of distance, the film avoids the monotony of a long, solo journey by using intercuts. The main narrative is peppered with flashbacks to the events that led Grace to outer space. Most of these flashbacks serve as timely explainers but they also cleverly help the audience notice the evolution of Gosling’s character. If you didn’t already feel the warm and fuzzies watching Grace and Rocky, the realisation that dawns on you from these flashbacks will warm your heart.
My only gripe about Project Hail Mary, and I had to dig deep for this, is the pacing of the set up. These first few minutes felt like it could have been a bit tighter but thankfully it was not a deal breaker.
Overall, Project Hail Mary is a stellar watch thanks to a well-considered narrative that stops it going down the clinical route of some sci-fi outings. It is a movie that I would happily rewatch even though I think future rewatches won’t match my first viewing.
This is because I watched Project Hail Mary as part of IMAX’s launch at Event Cinemas Innaloo. The movie was shot specifically for IMAX and it was the perfect film to showcase IMAX’s visual and sound capabilities. It was awe-inspiring to see the galaxy on such the huge, crystal clear screen. I could really feel the vastness of space, even with a cinema full of people around me. Additionally, the evocative soundtrack delivered an extra punch with IMAX.
I highly recommend catching Project Hail Mary in IMAX. If you can’t, the movie will still deliver a satisfying excursion that will have you keeping tabs on next year’s Oscars.
Project Hail Mary opens in cinemas on 19th March.