PROJECT HAIL MARY – Review by Valerie Kalfrin
Ryan Gosling’s considerable charm almost meets its match in a rocklike alien full of wit and pathos in Project Hail Mary, an uplifting adventure about learning you really do have the right stuff. Including breathtaking IMAX imagery, this big-hearted sci-fi story hinges on an enchanting interstellar friendship that doesn’t hit one false note.
Based on the 2021 best-selling novel by Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary opens as middle school science teacher Ryland Grace (Gosling, The Fall Guy) gets his bearings aboard the Hail Mary, a spacecraft named for his long-shot mission light-years from home. Earth is on track to become cold and lifeless, thanks to a mysterious molecule on Venus essentially eating the sun’s energy. “We’re all gonna die,” says one of Ryland’s students in a flashback as the affable teacher tries to balance lessons and current events without panic.
Ryland assures his students the best minds in the world are working on this—and one of them taps him. Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller, Rose) dug up a research paper from years ago where Ryland, a molecular biologist, went out on a limb. Eva explains they’ve found another sun beyond our galaxy in a similar predicament, except this one has managed to keep its energy. Her team is desperate for any theory that might save our sun and the rest of us.
With no roots beyond an ex-wife, Ryland links up with the research team, his efforts there intercut with those in space. Aboard the Hail Mary, as he pieces together what to do next, Ryland spots another vessel nearby: one with a sole scientist, an alien he winds up naming Rocky.
The craggy little creature’s planet and species are in similar straits as Earth, something the film spills within roughly the first forty minutes, leaving plenty more plot to discover. As Rocky and Ryland work together, the script by Drew Goddard, who earned an Oscar nomination for another Weir adaptation, 2016’s The Martian, balances the science without losing humor or humanity.
Gosling plays Ryland with a MacGyver-like style and attitude that wins over the scientists much like his students, but he’s no overconfident wunderkind. Amusingly, the theory from his research paper doesn’t hold water, but he’s truly brilliant. He just hasn’t had the chance or the nerve to show it. Gosling peels back the humility bordering on insecurity, the subtler moments behind the quips, revealing fear and vulnerability without guile.
He has a delightful scene partner in Rocky, who is a fully realized creation, despite having no discernable features and five arms with nubby claws. Credit puppeteer James Ortiz, who also voices Rocky after Ryland figures out an ad hoc translator for the alien’s trills and warbles. Ortiz gives him such depth and personality, turning that blank slate into a being rich with compassion, consternation, sarcasm, mangled metaphors, and touching purity. The banter between him and Gosling shines, whether coordinating research, bickering like roommates, or hanging out on the Hail Mary holodeck, absorbing the sights and sounds of Earth.
Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (both of 22 Jump Street and The Lego Movie) balance the grounded emotions with a judicious mix of practical, special, and visual effects. Whether Rocky scuttles around the Hail Mary or Ryland rotates the ship to activate its gravity, the environment feels tactile, both a haven at the outer limits and a fragile one, too. Outside, the effects’ teams create sights that render Ryland speechless: a planet that dwarfs him in swirls of green, walls like prisms entwined with golden strings, twinkles of particles like iridescent sparks.
Space scenes aside, Project Hail Mary also creates believable camaraderie among the research team. Ken Leung (Industry) and Milana Vayntrub (Monster) convey the pragmatism and gallows humor one imagines some might have around a mission like this. As for Hüller, she makes Eva efficient, practical, and no nonsense but hardly uncaring, surprising Ryland and the team both with her hope and a poignant piece of karaoke.
In sports, a Hail Mary is a last-ditch effort with your back against the wall. In Project Hail Mary, that effort scores an enriching friendship, a balm for two souls in the vast and the dark and encouragement for anyone who thinks they can’t meet the moment.
