‘Project Hail Mary’ Review: One of the Best Films of the Year
I don’t usually read a book before a movie. The obvious reason is I’m just a bad reader and don’t seek out books as often as I should (put a comic book in front of me though and I’ll finish it no problem). But another reason is if I know a book I’m interested in is becoming a movie, or if a movie I’m anticipating is based on a book, I don’t really try to seek it out. I don’t like knowing what’s going to happen beforehand and I don’t like the idea of it giving me expectations. Is that a silly reason to not read? Probably. It’s just the way I’m coded. I’ll usually seek out a book after I see the movie, then compare. In fact, I did that with The Martian, the last Andy Weir adaptation.
For the first time in maybe ever, I actually read Project Hail Mary before I saw the movie last week (I was lucky enough to snag tickets to an early showing at the wonderful Music Box Theatre). I knew the movie was coming out, but by the time posters came out for it I was too far in to stop. The biggest thing that kept coming to mind while reading it: How in the world are they going to adapt this into a movie?
About twenty to thirty minutes in, my worries evaporated. Project Hail Mary is an absolute delight. It’s a fun, hilarious, emotional space adventure that had me laughing my ass off, gripping my seat, and sitting back in awe numerous times. This could very well be one of the best films of the year, and a grand slam of a crowd pleaser.
Now, if you are the kind of person that likes to go in blind, and haven’t seen any trailers for this movie or don’t know much about it, I would stop reading here. In my opinion, that’s the right way to go see this, but unfortunately trailers and marketing have spoiled a key part of the movie. I do get into that in the rest of the review, so again, if you like going into movies blind, I’d stop reading here. Long story short, this is a big recommendation from me.
Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (21 and 22 Jump Street, The Lego Movie) and written by Drew Goddard (The Martian, funnily enough), the film stars Ryan Gosling as Dr. Ryland Grace, a scientist/school teacher who wakes up from an induced coma and suffers from amnesia. He scarily but quickly learns that he is not only in a spaceship called the Hail Mary, but is lightyears away from Earth, tasked with saving the world from a mysterious organism that has begun draining the sun. As time goes on, Grace begins to get his memory back, and the movie hops back and forth in time Nolan-style between Grace in space and Grace back on Earth, working with other scientists and world leaders on trying to find out what the threat is and how to stop it. Leading the charge on Earth is Eva Stratt, played by a wonderful Sandra Huller, who acts as a sort of guide for Grace but also makes difficult decisions in order to save the world.
It’s a lot of information that, admittedly, goes by very very quickly. Thankfully, the movie really takes off when Grace runs into an unexpected ally out in space, an alien life form that is attempting to save their homeworld from the exact same threat. Grace names the alien Rocky, and the two eventually learn to communicate and work together to save their homeworlds. While this entire movie is great, it’s this friendship with Grace and Rocky that really becomes the heart of Project Hail Mary.
There’s definitely a lot to juggle here (one of my concerns while reading the book), but I think for the most part Lord, Miller, and Goddard handle it really well. I think one of my biggest compliments I can give the movie is that it’s just a great crowd pleaser, with a little something for everyone. While this is a sci-fi movie, it doesn't feel too sci-fi, if that makes sense. There’s definitely elements of The Martian and Gravity here, but also movies like E.T came to mind, especially with Rocky. This should also come as no surprise to fans of Lord and Miller’s work, but this movie is absolutely hilarious. I don’t tend to laugh out loud too much in movies, but this movie had me full on cracking up multiple times (one of the best feelings in the world is laughing with a full crowd in a movie theater). Yet you never forget the stakes and how dire Grace and Rocky’s mission is. I’ll laugh out loud one minute, then sink back into my seat when a plan unexpectedly goes wrong. I loved Grace and Rocky, of course, but also was so invested in everything back on Earth, even if I knew where it was going.
That’s thanks in no small part to the cast. While most of them are in limited roles, I still think everyone is great, especially Sandra Huller as Stratt. She is a little gentler here than in the book, and I think Huller plays her great. She somehow combines bluntness with small slivers of gentle compassion, and Huller sells it so well, even if her character still keeps her distance from everyone she’s in charge of. Her moments of making tough decisions also land pretty hard, and I could see this feeling very clunky in the wrong hands. But thankfully Huller just nails it.
But at the end of the day, this is Ryan Gosling’s movie through and through. There are the Earth moments yes, but for the most part he is either by himself or acting with a puppet, and Gosling fucking kills it. I’ll admit I’m a little bias here, because I just love the guy and will watch anything he does (The Nice Guys made me a superfan). But he really is fantastic here. He’s hilarious, he really sells the sense of awe, and he gives Grace more layers to him than just a guy trying to save the world. It’s hard to say given how many good movies he’s been in, but man, this might be his best performance. A lot of this movie reset on his shoulders, and he shows he’s more than up to the task. It’s one of the best performances of the year.
What raises Project Hail Mary even more to me is how incredible it is on a technical level too. It’s an awe inspiring mix of production design and visual effects, and I have to give a specific shoutout to everything with Rocky. A mix of effects, old school puppetry, and fantastic sound design make him feel so real, and while he is cute, his whole design makes him still feel truly alien. He’s also the source of the movie’s emotional highs and biggest laughs. You will be quoting some of his lines well after you left the theater.
I couldn’t live with myself without acknowledging the other two M.V.P’s of this movie either. The legendary Greig Fraiser continues to raise the bar on cinematography (see also his work in The Batman and the Dune films), making this a must see in the biggest screen you can find. I was lucky enough to see it in 70mm, and I was just in awe multiple times. Leave it to Fraiser to find a way to give you some of the most colorful and gorgeous space visuals you’ve ever seen.
The other M.V.P is composer Daniel Pemberton. Like Fraiser, I’ve liked everything he’s worked on, but this might be my favorite of Pemberton’s scores. Which is saying a lot considering how much I adore his score for the Spider-Verse movies. I feel too often I don’t acknowledge the score for films as much as I should, and I would be angry at myself if I made that same mistake here. It’s an incredible score, one that I think will be regarded as one of the great space epics in time (I’m listening to it as I’m writing this review).
I do have some complaints, but a lot of them are just me comparing the movie with the book, and I don’t think that’s a fair thing to do. The movie is still great, and I’m really curious on what people who haven’t read the book will think about it. I still think fans of the book will be pleased. A lot of the problem solving Grace does is pretty sidelined, so if you were a fan of that you may be a little bummed out. But if you aren’t a fan of that I think you’ll be pretty pleased. My wife, who read the book much faster than I did, said it was the best book-to-movie adaptation she’s ever seen, so there is that too.
Book or not, I think Project Hail Mary is a grand slam. It's a sci-fi adventure at its finest, anchored by one of Ryan Gosling’s best performances and one of the coolest and funniest aliens I’ve ever seen in Rocky. Add to that some absolutely gorgeous filmmaking and an incredible score, and you’ve got everything I love about movies. It’s bonafide movie magic that deserves to be seen on the biggest screen possible. Amaze amaze amaze.
