Fans of Andy Weir’s “The Martian” — and Ridley Scott’s 2015 film adaptation starring Matt Damon — will find familiar bones in this deep space drama with a side of buddy comedy based on Weir’s third novel, “Project Hail Mary.” Weir’s self-published first novel was hailed for its deep scientific detail and accuracy but “Hail Mary” trades hard science for a more fantastical plot. As in Christopher Nolan’s weighty “Interstellar” (2014), we learn early on that the Earth is dying — here, because an alien microorganism called “Astrophage” is eating away the sun. Without adequate sunlight, famine will arrive in 20 to 30 years; the wars triggered by the diminishing food supply will crack civilization far sooner.
It’s not just an Earth problem, either. The ravenous Astrophage are devouring nearly all the stars in the galactic neighborhood — except one, some 12 light-years away. A team of astronauts has been sent to study this star, find out why it is resilient, and return to Earth with the solution. The caveat: The ship has only enough fuel for a one-way trip. The astronauts will send the solution back to Earth via probe, while they drift around for a few more years with various forms of painless euthanasia at their disposal. It’s not exactly something most people would raise their hand for. But the alternative is slow starvation — or worse — before your newly refinanced mortgage is paid off.
Enlisted into this world-saving effort is Dr. Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), a fallen scientist relegated to teaching high school, who just happens to be an expert on Astrophage and centrifuges. Grace’s role, under the command of mission leader Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller, who knocked it out of the park in “Anatomy of a Fall” and is equally excellent here) is to advise the astronaut teams about all things Astrophage and how to harness its power as rocket fuel.
This is all told to us in flashbacks partway through the film. In the opener, Grace wakes up aboard the aptly named “Hail Mary” after a coma-induced journey to the star. Why he’s there is a piquant development I’ll leave for viewers to discover. Needless to say, Grace is not a trained astronaut and the rest of the crew are dead, so what’s an otherwise raffish man-boy supposed to do with the weight of the world — and the universe — on his shoulders?
Like Damon’s Mars-marooned astronaut, this period of despair is fleeting before our antihero gets down to the task at hand: staying alive and completing the mission. Since Earth is so far away, Grace can’t radio in a “Houston, we have a problem” distress call. But there’s an intimate encounter of the third kind when another ship shows up — a vast vessel, studded with spires, about three times bigger than the Hail Mary. The pilot of that ship, a three-foot-tall bipedal rock that moves like a chimp — Grace names him “Rocky” — is also the lone survivor of a mission to save another home planet.
Grace and Rocky struggle mightily to connect across the universe — their atmospheric needs are mutually toxic and then there’s the whole communication gap. But alien technology and Grace’s MacGyver-like determination get them beyond their early miming awkwardness. At first Rocky is imbued with the voice of Meryl Streep — an unexpected and brilliantly humorous injection — but later, the space odd couple settles on a more masculine register, voiced by James Ortiz.
As directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the tandem behind “The Lego Movie” and “21 Jump Street” (both 2014), “Project Hail Mary” plays with the cheeky energy of that latter spin-up, where differences divide as much as they bind. Here, the tone never erupts into a big guffaw but hangs as a warm, restrained grin. There are plenty of long-odds challenges that Grace and Rocky must surmount, and Miller and Lord, and their team of FX artists and editors, deftly make these scenes tense and suspenseful. David Pemberton’s lithe score pulls the audience into the emotional currents — grief, suspense, humor — of the film. Gosling, seemingly jumping off from the shaggy dog quality of his Ken persona in “Barbie,” carries the star-hopping picture with understated control. Not all of the pacing and tonalities coalesce but Gosling is the glue for any bumps. The result is a slick, feel-good sci-fi adventure that, like many of its genre, is best seen in a big screen format. I saw it in IMAX and suggest you do, too.
– Tom Meek
At Kendall Square Cinema, Apple Cinemas Cambridge and AMC Assembly Row 12
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