Star man
Ryan Gosling as Dr Ryland Grace, the world’s most unlikely astronaut/hero.
Project Hail Mary is Ryan Gosling’s cosmic one man show (plus one very adorable co-star) - just make sure you bring plenty of tissues for the voyage.
Dr Grace explains science to young minds.
First of all, you’ve got to see this movie on an IMAX screen. It was specifically made for the shock and awe effect of the huge format screen plus the mega sound that’ll envelop you as the story unfolds.
Secondly, if you weren’t already a teeny bit in love with Ryan Gosling, be prepared to cast all other Ryans (and men tbh) assunder as the ruffled and befuddled unwilling astronaut charms the living daylights out of all and sundry. If there’s an actor currently on our screens with more charisma, I'm not sure who that’d be. Gosling is a darling and when he explains complex microbiological things with his wire rimmed glasses dangling off his chops, well I’m afraid all bets are off and marriages cancelled.
Thirdly, don’t go to this movie expecting to leave with your tear ducts intact. Thanks to the introduction of a very loveable alien about a third of the way in, you’ll never look at rock-shaped spiders in the same way ever again.
It’s a long movie too, so make the most of those reclining seats and strap in for a story that flips backwards and forwards in time as the world (and pretty much the whole cosmos) is threatened by a light-eating microbe which will render the Earth deceased and dark unless somebody can work out a way to halt them in their tracks.
Enter unwillingly stage left, Dr Grace, an engaging high school science teacher who ‘doesn’t even own a dog’ but is probably every kid’s favourite teacher.
We learn he wrote a mostly dissed PhD on something or other back in the day which has now caught the attention of East German boffin Eva Stratt (Sandra Huller) thanks to an ominous cosmic threat from something called astrophage (or ‘star killer), creating a huge thread which has appeared in our skies. In case this new threat to add to the pile we are all currently dealing with is news to you, astrophage feeds on a star's surface, travels to a planet (like Venus) to gather carbon dioxide, reproduces via mitosis, and returns to the star. However, and massive downer alert, in the process it extinguishes the source of its energy: in this case, our sun.
Dr Grace and Eva Stratt consider their (limited) options to save the world.
After a bit of haughty Germanic persuasion by Stratt, Dr Grace becomes part of an elite team of international nerds who apply their collective giant brains to try to solve the astrophage problem in Timeline A. This involves some fun scientific tomfoolery along the way, with a visit to America’s Bunnings for some sticky tape, Snickers and alfoil.
They come up with a one-shot solutio - the Hail Mary of the film’s title - and for the three astronauts who are tasked with carrying out the mission, it’s a one-way trip to oblivion.
Meanwhile on Timeline B, our adorable boy wakes up alone and confused on a spaceship a very, very long way from home, with a couple of dead astronauts for company.
How did he get there? Who is he? Will he survive solely on vodka and ramen forever? And what’s that strange but beautiful spaceship lurking outside the porthole he can see? For the guy who put the ‘naut’ into astronaut, it’s a confusing set of circumstances x one million.
A lonely demise spinning into infinity beckons unless he can gather his courage and take one giant leap for mankind and makes contact with whatever entity is behind the controls of the nearest thing to a safety net he can see.
As Dr Grace gradually works out his place in the grand scheme of things, it’s hard to understand why he didn’t have a dog/significant other/friend either. This guy exudes charm like astrophages consume light.
Chuck in a karaoke night aboard an enormous aircraft carrier (hat tip to an emotional rendition of Harry Styles’ Sign of the Times’ by Stratt), a queasy reveal of the reality of how Dr Grace ended up on board the spaceship, and plenty of fun interactions with Rocky the alien (played with supreme panache and empathy by puppeteering legend James Ortiz and his team, who were on set with Ryan in every scene), and it’s no wonder the gravitational pull of Project Hail Mary will keep you in its orbit long after the credits roll.
Project Hail Mary is out on March 19.
