Cosmic crowd-pleaser

A family-friendly crowd-pleaser that combines flashes of the sci-fi sublime with bursts of slapstick comedy, this space odyssey is goofy, peppy and — more than anything — hopeful.

Based on Andy Weir’s 2021 hard science-fiction novel, Project Hail Mary is powered by a passionate belief in pragmatism, ingenuity and science. There’s a sunny confidence here that people can figure things out, work together and act for the common good.

And sure, that might be wildly optimistic, but it’s a wild optimism a lot of us need right now.

Ryland Grace — an (inter)stellar performance from Barbie’s Ryan Gosling — is a molecular biologist whose academic career was scuttled by a stubbornly unorthodox position on alien life. Now he’s an underpaid but inspiring middle school science teacher in California.

So how does Grace find himself waking from an induced coma, alone on a spaceship light-years away from Earth, with no clear recollection of who he is or how he got there?

His memories return in flashes. On recognizing a highly specialized bit of diagnostic technology, Grace asks himself, “Am I smart?”

Well, yes, he is. Grace is on this ship because he knows a lot about “astrophage,” alien microbes that appear to be absorbing our sun’s energy, dooming our planet to a painful, protracted extinction. A global taskforce led by Eva Stratt (Anatomy of a Fall’s Sandra Huller, doing a bang-up job as Gosling’s straight woman) has put together a last-ditch attempt to save humanity.

Grace has been sent into space to investigate the one distant star that seems immune to the spreading astrophage plague, a mission that becomes even more complicated — but again, even more hopeful — when he finds another intergalactic traveller on the same quest.

Grace makes friends with the alien Rocky (voiced by The Woodsman’s James Ortiz), an affable cross between an arthropod and a pile of stones. Despite an initial language barrier and the fact the new guy breathes ammonia and prefers temperatures of 210 C, the two start working together, desperate to protect their home worlds.

Co-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, known for animated works like the Clone High series, The Lego Movie and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, approach live action with an animator’s delight in playful jokes, inventive sight gags and detailed world-building.

Visuals sometimes pay homage to Stanley Kubrick — spacecraft rotating with balletic beauty in the vast dark of space — but the overall vibe leans more to Steven Spielberg. (There’s an explicit riff on Close Encounters.)

Scripter Drew Goddard, who also adapted Weir’s 2011 novel The Martian for Ridley Scott’s 2015 flick, once again channels the author’s gee-whiz, can-do enthusiasm for improvised contraptions and hands-on science projects. One Earth-based flashback involves a trip to the hardware store and, wow, Grace buys a lot of duct tape.

The scientific theory, meanwhile, is broad and clear enough that even liberal arts majors (hello!!) can feel like they’re in the know.

Bucking against the recent trend of Sad Astronaut movies (First Man, Ad Astra, Spaceman, High Life), Project Hail Mary is frequently funny, sometimes even hokey. (“Ah, humour… confusing,” as Rocky would say.)

That’s not to say there are no big emotional moments. Project Hail Mary wants the audience to feel all the feels, and there are heartfelt scenes of wonder and awe, friendship and sacrifice — plus one really moving karaoke number.

Ultimately, the film is overlong, and the story structure stalls out in the last third — Goddard might be hewing too close to the book, piling up too many plots.

But Project Hail Mary stays on course because of its star. Like Matt Damon in The Martian, Gosling spends much of his screentime alone. Fortunately, he’s great company. Gosling’s self-deprecating (and secretly Canadian) charm combine with crack comic timing to carry this cosmic dramedy all the way home.

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