‘Project Hail Mary’ Review: This Ryan Gosling space-fiction film defies gravity, but keeps you glued to your seat

You’re Ryland Grace. You’ve made a friend in the middle of nowhere in deep space. You’re not there out of choice and the other ‘person’ has no other choice left. An unseen enemy is plaguing both your planets and the only way out is to figure out a solution to your problem. The bigger problem is communicating. Time is running out. What do you do?

Trouble is, only days (or is it weeks or years?) prior, you woke up from an induced coma to find out that you don’t remember a thing about your past. Or who your fellow astronauts were and how you got there. By and by, it comes back to you in fuzzy flashbacks. It’s not all rosy.

Let’s get one thing out of the way. Ryan Gosling’s Ryland Grace is you, me, any average Joe, who doesn’t want to play the hero. As a scientist with a degree in molecular biology and relevant skill sets (putting him right in front of a think-tank that’s working round the clock to figure out a way to stop the sun from ‘dying’), he’d rather do nothing than be a part of the solution.Like him, you don’t want to play along, initially. But you do, anyway… because, science. A freak accident later, we see Grace dragged and drugged, kicking and screaming and forced into a spaceship called the Hail Mary, by project head Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller). 

It’s all too relatable. Being told to solve an insurmountable problem and probably die in the middle of nowhere and sacrificing yourself for billions of other faceless, nameless (arguably, thankless) humans, is a massive ask. And Ryland is not equal to the task.

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To his credit, Ryan Gosling makes it all work. Playing a ‘big brain’ who comes off a coward and is happy admitting it requires courage of a different sort. To then spend hours together opposite an animatronic puppet and learning to ‘converse’ with it, is an art in itself. To make, what could well have been yet another dull and dour (though extremely good-looking) sci-fi film, into an intelligent, informed and engaging story, is largely the directors' (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller) and the screenwriter’s (Drew Goddard) responsibility, but it’s the quiet Grace (pun intended) that Gosling brings to the role that elevates the film.

Lord, Miller and Goddard bringing ‘Project Hail Mary’ author Andy Weir on board pays off. The film comes off as a rather faithful adaptation of the book. In parts, the risks they take (preferring practical effects over visually ones, deciding not to use green screens, as reported) bring a glowing warmth to the cold expanse of space.

Nothing ‘personifies’ this better than the alien, the Eridian engineer, Rocky (voiced by James Ortiz), who is so pumped up to see someone else after months (or is it years) that he quickly learns to talk to Grace and come up with ways to beat the Astrophage that plagues both their planets. Rocky and Grace strike up a rapport that instantly shakes you out of the reverie induced by parts where precious little happens. 

The film has its moments: Ryan meeting other scientists, his equation with Carl and Stratt and eventually Rocky is all imbued with humour with an ominous undercurrent that plays along below the surface. Stratt breaking into Harry Styles’ “Sign Of The Times” is an inspired touch. Using The Beatles’ “Two Of Us” is another. The background music (Daniel Pemberton) ensures you’re paying attention when there’s hardly any action on screen.

And when the final destination and the journey back means tough calls have to be made, it’s how the two ‘friends’ decide, that drives this film.

It’s one thing to science the sh*t out of something, but to make it endearing, yet effective at the same time while striking the right balance is nothing short of phenomenal. This film doesn’t need a ‘Hail Mary,’ just making sure it’s “full of Grace” is enough to keep you in your seats till the end. So what if it is close to three hours long?