As handsome as Hollywood star Ryan Gosling, he wouldn’t have made it far and getting top-notch roles if he weren’t a great actor. From La La Land to The Nice Guys (my personal favourite Gosling film) to Blade Runner 2049, he’s one of Hollywood’s affable chameleons who can play any sort of role and pull it off with so much genuine charisma and comedic timing.

But to act all on his own and to carry the majority of a film where he’s working with practical effects? That does take skill to make it believable and its viewers to buy into the immersion of a “one man show”. That is apparent in the new scifi film Project Hail Mary, where Gosling hits it out of the ballpark in his role as science teacher-turned-makeshift-astronaut Ryland Grace.

One Shot

In Project Hail Mary, Ryland Grace is in a spaceship with the sole mission of solving the problem of Earth’s Sun dying. Along the way, he accidentally bumps into an alien ship piloted solely by a sentient rock lifeform named, well, Rocky (voiced by James Ortiz), as they’re both on similar missions and have to work together. As the narrative flows along, we get to see flashbacks of Grace’s time on Earth leading up to how he got in the spaceship in the first place, with the whole mission sorted out by high level government bigwig Eva Stratt (Sandra Huller).

The film starts off with Grace getting semi-amnesia in the spaceship, with him piecing his story and mission together, hence the flashbacks. They all transition smoothly and really make us relate to Grace’s predicament and how his work ends up being the crux of the mission and the show’s title, with a good amount of science talk broken down easily for us mere mortals to digest. I really dig how it goes back and forth but still keep focus on the show’s main hook: Grace and Rocky teaming up and being close friends throughout the space trek into the semi-unknown. Like I said before, Gosling has to work alone in front of said effects and animatronics, and he really pulls it off with his acting and portrayal as a cowardly science teacher put in an inteniable situation, but eventually growing a pair and getting a little push from his alien friend. Our extraterrestial comrade Rocky is also made believable and written really well, as if the impressive set design and non-green screen displays and elaborate environments weren’t marvellous spectacles. It’s a lost art that I’m glad the Lord-Miller director and production combo has pulled off superbly.

If I had any complaints, it’s that some of the flashbacks in the second half of the film could have been paced better. They do serve their purpose story-wise, but it does feel like it’s stalling for time at certain moments. Then again, the show’s writing is really well-executed to the point where that bit is just me really nitpicking.

Rock Solid

All in all, there’s a lot of optimism and hope radiating from a film where the Earth’s sun is dying and our heroes are stranded in space far away from their points of origin. You can believe a faceless rock alien midget can make you emotional; cry even. The two-personnel-on-a-ship-stranded-in-space gimmick is done up well thanks to its very uplifting spirit and presentation, its script and dialogue (with some of it from the whale sonar-sounding alien), and esoteric-yet-harmonious score.

Project Hail Mary is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of sci-fi film that ends up beyond the stars; a “hope-core” movie that delivers all the feels and pathos of emotions, genuinely as enthralling as a Steven Spielberg flick without too much of the whimsy that’s usually on his titles.

Final Score: 90/100