Story Over Thought

I’ve had Project Hail Mary on my watchlist since the day it was first announced (in theory; I didn’t have a Letterboxd account back then), but circumstances, laziness, and the trailers slightly underwhelming prevented me from pursuing a screener. And then seeing it opening night. And then opening week…

But better late than never! I have my issues with the latest buddy cop story from Lord and Miller (no memorable set piece, four or five endings stacked on top of each other, an overdose of sentimentality), but I wouldn’t say any of those mattered all that much in the big picture. Part of that is due to the craft of the script and the splendor of the visuals, but mostly due to Ryan Gosling, who has finally found a role where he can marry his wonderfully goofy comedic charm with his considerable acting skills and his penchant for playing disenfranchised loners. Though this doesn’t discover any new depth to Gosling, it is nice to see mainstream audiences realize he’s one of cinema’s most likable stars. He’s the perfect man for this character, and he carries a good deal of it on his back, though Rocky helps too—good God that little fella is cute.

Speaking of which, there’s a sense of physicality in this movie that I really appreciated, from the puppetry to the physical sets to the equipment and suits. Apparently there isn’t one use of green screen in the entire thing, which I didn’t know going in, but you can tell. Movies like these are often referred to pejoratively as ‘coworker movies,’ a new way of saying that the normies have bad taste, but it’s hard to complain too much about a film trying to surround its big beating heart with old-fashioned craft and adequate characterization. Project Hail Mary is a simple movie, but so are most Ghibli films. While it’s not nearly as poetic as any of those masterstrokes, there is an admirable attempt to deliver an experience for both the head and the heart, the young and the old. It’s certainly not the worst material this crew has signed their name on in the last decade. That was a diss at The Gray Man, if you were wondering.

And while it’s probably dangerous for my reputation to once again compare Lord and Miller to Miyazaki, like the best Ghibli films, there’s even a curious thread of darkness bubbling beneath the wholesome humor and peaceful visuals. The best part about this story is that Grace actively refuses to go on the trip, which is revealed late in the runtime, but does a lot for his arc. This is sort of a much lighter companion piece to First Man, a film where someone struggling with their emotions does whatever they can to extinguish them, and a trip to the stars just so happens to be the path towards escape. Whereas that film’s version of Armstrong is the bravest man on earth because he’s searching for distance, Grace finds himself isolated and barreling towards death despite yearning for a return to life before it stopped making sense. At least until he finds someone in the same shape. 

Project Hail Mary isn’t really about becoming a more “normal” person, but about finding someone (or something? “Faces are overrated”) to communicate with so as to share that otherness, regardless of how the bond originates or the language it’s spoken through, which is what living is all about. Statement. 04-02-26