It’s an ordinary day on Earth—at least, it appears so. But middle school science teacher Ryland Grace, played by Ryan Gosling, knows better. There’s a new life form called “astrophage,” which is eating the sun, decreasing its light and jeopardizing life on earth. But there’s hope. A team of scientists led by Eva Stratt, played by Sandra Huller, want Grace to be part of their epic space mission—called “Project Hail Mary”—to try to save the sun. As the movie progresses, Grace realizes this space mission was not at all what he’d expected. Through a chance encounter, he meets his new alien friend Rocky, played by James Ortiz, and together they race to find a way to stop the astrophage and save their people. Based on the book “Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller take this movie to a whole new level.
Having never read the book, I had no idea what to expect going into this movie, and now I know what all the rage was about—this movie was a smash hit! One of my favorite parts of “Project Hail Mary” was how the setting jumped back and forth between Grace on his mission in space and the past, where he was back on Earth, preparing for the mission. It kept the audience on their toes the entire time, wondering what was going to happen next. And there wasn’t ever a dull moment in the movie. Even when the plot moved a bit slower, like when Grace is alone on his ship for weeks, I never got bored.
The character development was also one of the great parts of this movie. At the beginning, Grace is a distant man who is much less than willing to risk his life to save earth. Through his adventures and the people (and creatures) he meets, he becomes a man who the whole world can trust. The character development between Grace and Rocky was also really powerful. At the beginning of the movie, they saw their partnership as something that was just necessary, and Grace especially felt that Rocky was a burden for him. But as the movie progresses, it was inspiring to see how they warmed up to each other, and even risked their lives for each other.
I also think Ryan Gosling deserves a mention here. This wasn’t his first lead role (he’s starred in other awesome movies like “Fall Guy” and co-starred in “La La Land” and “Barbie”) but it was one of his best. Throughout the movie, he completely embodied Grace’s quirky personality, doing things like hooking his glasses crooked under his chin and wearing super nerdy science shirts. And his emotions felt so genuine during the whole movie. When some actors cry, they pull it off ok, but when Gosling cried, it looked and felt real.
The one downside to this movie was that there were times when the music was too loud and it was hard to hear what the characters were saying. That only happened a few times in the movie, and although it was kind of annoying, it wasn’t that big of a deal.
All in all, this movie was highly entertaining and fun to watch. Even without reading the book, this movie was really easy to follow and the plot made sense all the way through. “Project Hail Mary” is definitely a must-watch movie!
