The premise of Project Hail Mary is that our sun, and other stars, are being drained of their energy by some force. Earthlings will slowly freeze to death if they can’t find a way to stop it. The movie, based on Andy Weir’s novel, balances a hard sci-fi story about stellar travel and stellar sickness with a soft one about a deep-space alien encounter.
It has a classic movie vibe. Actually, it has multiple classic movie vibes. Its lead is a solo square-jawed, wisecracking, genius hero. It has beautiful space cinematography. A space encounter. Deep space emergencies. Earth in peril. Lonely people connecting awkwardly.
Of the many themes it aimed for, the one that leaves the emotional impact is the connection the protagonist makes with the alien. Its arc is believable, the stakes feel real, and the connection portrayed has purpose, warmth, and levity. This results in a heartwarming and hilarious movie about a working relationship turning into a friendship. Buoyed by a great comedic performance by Gosling, along with the special effects, this relationship story alone makes it worth watching.
On a close viewing though, Project Hail Mary demonstrates that its hard to be whimsical and dramatic at the same time. After spending a great deal of emotional energy on the relationship and challenges of the protagonist and the alien, the movie still devotes much of its climax to solving the original problem. But by then, our sun’s impending death seems remote and tedious. After the hilarious meet-cute, I had trouble returning to eating the vegetables of solving earth’s troubles.
This is a movie that aims to include a kid audience, not just for its lack of sex and violence, but also because it avoids looking directly at difficult topics. We never see the people of earth freezing or fighting for food. We never see evidence or aftermath of our protagonist’s supposed social inability. As a grown-up, this expository approach makes it hard to feel the win when these challenges make progress.
The avoidance of pathos is most obvious when a small catastrophe happens on earth, prior to mission launch. It resulted in the death of at least one person, but rather than spend any emotion, in the very next scene, the movie delivers jokes while discussing the new logistical challenges. This makes Sandra Hüller’s stoic leadership not just a moving performance, but some necessary gravitas.
The story also doesn’t land its character arc. The narrative is structured as flashbacks that culminate in the end of act I coinciding with the climax. This would all be fine except that we fully understand the protagonist right when the protagonist also concludes their arc towards self-actualization. It’s an arc fully contained within the climax. Clever as it is, the brevity robs it of the power it could have had.
It’s a shame because Project Hail Mary hardly needed the fancy story structure or all the themes. Its funny wonder-journey was already a great movie.
