Project Hail Mary Movie Review
How does a film about one guy floating in space, talking to himself, end up this engaging?
Project Hail Mary sounds pretty thin on paper, but it is anything but.
Plot
Science teacher Ryland Grace wakes up on a spaceship with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory slowly returns, he soon discovers he must solve the riddle behind a mysterious substance that's causing the sun to die out. As details of the mission unravel, he calls on his scientific training and sheer ingenuity - but he may not have to do it alone.
Good Points
Ryan Gosling
Good balance between humour and heavier emotional beats
Rocky
Visuals
Patient pacing
Bad Points
Final act feels slightly stretched
It probably shouldn’t work
Project Hail Mary is the kind of film that will live or dies on its lead, and thankfully Ryan Gosling delivers, again, featuring long stretches where it’s just him, reacting, thinking, and figuring things out, so if that performance slips, the whole thing collapses.
It never does though, as we watch him react like someone genuinely trying to solve problems in real time.
The film also smoothly the film shifts between humour and heavy weight flawlessly, where Gosling again is impressive - one minute he’s joking in a desperate manner, while the next he’s dealing with something heavier - none of it feels like a switch either, it just flows and works, and that balance is harder to get right than it looks.
A lot of films will either push too hard on the comedy or lean too heavily into the more heavier elements, and this one sits somewhere in the middle and stays there comfortably.
Rocky
Then we have Rocky.
On paper, it sounds rather ridiculous - a rock-like alien becoming the emotional core of the film - but it works, and it works quickly.
Part of that is how he’s presented, because he doesn’t feel like a weightless digital effect, as there’s a sense of physicality, something tangible for Gosling to interact with, and it makes a huge difference - just two completely different beings trying to understand each other.
I caught myself genuinely worrying about what might happen to Rocky, and that’s the moment the film really wins.
Simple, but not empty.
The story itself is straightforward, and I think that really helps, because it doesn’t get bogged down trying to overcomplicate things,and instead, it can focuse on character and interaction, with no constant barrage of twists or spectacle.
Simplicity can work incredibly well when done correctly, and here it is done correctly.
The visuals too do exactly what it needs to - space feels massive, sometimes intimidating, but also calm, with no obsession with making every frame more flashier than it needs to be.
There’s also a real patience to the film, because you won’t be getting constant action or noise to hold your attention - scenes are allowed to play out, and conversations take their time.
The ending goes on a bit.
I did start to feel the length as it moved into the final stretch, and there are a couple of points where it feels like it’s wrapping up - like the natural conclusion has been reached - and then it keeps going.
And then it does it again.
It’s not enough to ruin anything much, but that slight “we could’ve ended 15-20 minutes ago” feeling popped up more into my thoughts.
But there’s enough emotional grounding that those extra minutes don’t feel wasted, just slightly overextended.
You get pulled in
What sticks with you the most however is how it pulls you in, as it’s not pushing for big emotional reactions all the time, it builds through smaller moments - lines, reactions, pauses.
So by the end, I realised I’d been completely absorbed without really noticing when it happened - I cared about what was going on, and what was on screen.
And that’s definitely not something every sci-fi film manages, especially one this contained.
Final Verdict
Project Hail Mary is a simple, patient, and very effective film to watch, and a slightly overlong ending aside, it works so well because you really end up caring.