There is a distinct moment in the middle of Project Hail Mary (no spoilers!) where you realise you are watching something genuinely special. The kind of special that sneaks up on you, the kind that arrives in the form of a spider-shaped alien made of living rock, speaking in musical tones, arguing with an amnesiac science teacher about astrophysics in the middle of deep space, and somehow making you feel more moved than any human-to-human scene you have seen on screen in years. Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s adaptation of Andy Weir’s beloved novel is a flat-out masterpiece, and the best film I have seen this year.
Ryan Gosling plays Dr Ryland Grace, or as he is known for most of the movie, just Grace, a mild-mannered middle school science teacher who wakes up alone on a spaceship with no memory of who he is or why he is hurtling through the cosmos at 11.9 light-years from home. The film cleverly fleshes out his backstory through a series of flashbacks, filling in the picture of how an ordinary science teacher became humanity’s last, wildly underqualified hope for survival. The blend of what is happening and what happened in his recent past is perfectly interwoven. The general unspoilery gist is that something is consuming the Sun, and every other star in the galaxy appears to be next. Grace is the guy we sent to fix it, and he barely remembers his own name. What unfolds from there is one of the most joyful, hilarious, and quietly devastating science fiction films ever put to screen.
The film’s greatest achievement, and the undeniable soul of the whole thing, is the relationship between Grace and Rocky. Rocky is an Eridian, a spider-like alien built from living rock who, it turns out, has been sent on exactly the same mission by his own planet. Brought to breathtaking life by theatre artist James Ortiz and creature designer Neal Scanlan through masterful puppetry and seamless visual effects, Rocky is one of cinema’s great characters, think Yoda & E.T. There is not a single moment where you are wondering about the technology behind him; he is just Rocky, and within twenty minutes you love him completely. The two characters have to build a shared language from scratch, communicating first through musical tones before bringing in a translator app. Once it gets going, watching that friendship slowly assemble itself piece by piece is one of the great things that this film has to offer. Gosling and Ortiz have a chemistry that feels completely effortless, that flips between laugh-out-loud bickering and a tenderness that absolutely floors you by the time the film reaches its final act. To steal a quote from my friend Carlo over at This is Film “Rocky has big ginger cat energy” and I couldn’t agree more.
And it is funny, that is to be expected from directors Lord and Miller, the duo behind comedic juggernauts like The Lego Movie, the Spider-Verse franchise and the Jump Street films. A lot of Lord and Miller’s humour that I love comes from their work in the TV space with shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Last Man on Earth. Here, they bring their trademark wit and playfulness to every corner of the film, and it never once undercuts the very real stakes of what is happening. Grace’s running commentary as he pieces together who he is and why he is there, the increasingly exasperated way he and Rocky navigate their differences, all combine to create something that feels warm and human even in the coldest reaches of space. This is science fiction that knows that the audience can laugh and cry in the same breath, and Lord and Miller are exactly the right directors to pull it off.
Their direction throughout is nothing short of extraordinary. The clever use of alternating aspect ratios using widescreen for the Earth flashbacks, then expanding to full IMAX for the spaceship sequences, is elegant visual storytelling, and their instinct for pacing across a 160-minute runtime is impeccable. They know when to lean into the comedy, when to let silence do the heavy lifting, and when to hit you right in the feels. Greig Fraser’s cinematography is not afraid to get close up, while also spinning around, inducing some dizziness, particularly in the big-screen space moments. It is a film that fires on all cylinders and makes it look completely effortless. My only concern is the ending; it felt like it had about 4 endings and could have easily picked one or even two to wrap things up. That doesn’t take away from the overall greatness of this film; it still leaves you with a massive smile on your face and that feeling of walking out of an incredible experience.
Project Hail Mary is an example of that rare blockbuster that serves as an everlasting beacon of positivity. A message of hope is what we need right now in the current climate, and this film delivers that through humour. Gosling is giving one of the best performances of his career; he is in full Hollywood leading man mode here and showing his comedic and action skills. Ortiz as Rocky is a Yoda-esque moment that will go down as one of the best in human and creature relationships. Through this, Lord and Miller have delivered a film that will be talked about for years to come. Go and see it on the biggest screen you can find. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll leave wanting to see it again and again.
Project Hail Mary is in cinemas March 19.
