Review: Project Hail Mary
Non-Spoiler Alert: This review will focus on random details that are not necessarily relevant to the main plot. As all serious film criticism should.
MAS members attended a special preview screening of Project Hail Mary. An informal survey of those milling around in the lobby afterward gave the movie 9-10 out of 10 stars. One viewer who had read the book (her husband won a copy at last year’s Astrophotography Showcase!) estimated that the movie was 92% accurate to the book, which seems extremely specific and therefore trustworthy.
The main character, played by Ryan Gosling, is named Grace. At one point in the film, he wears an awesome 1970s-style tracksuit jacket. He also wears a variety of sweet t-shirts, including a Periodic Table graphic tee that says, “I wear this periodically.” Fingers crossed the costume designer gets an Oscar in 2027.
Speaking of the periodic table, the noble gas Xe (xenon) features prominently in the storyline. In this fictional case, it becomes Xenonite: an all-purpose alien solid material that can be generated on the fly and is used to solve many of the problems encountered by the characters. One major highlight is that Xenonite can be used to make glass-looking spacesuits that resemble those geodesic terrariums people keep cacti in. Except wearable.
Speaking of the best fashion decade ever, the 1970s, at least two movies from that era are referenced in the story: Rocky and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (and yes, those famous boop-boop-beep-boop notes). Grace nicknames his sidekick Rocky, and he nicknames the planet Tau Ceti e (in the Tau Ceti star system) Adrian. Because Tau Ceti is a boring name.
We learn that Rocky doesn’t know how to use a retractable tape measure and gets tangled up in it. I won’t say why—no spoilers, remember? But wait…why is the first interstellar ship humans send abroad stocked with retractable tape measures? This remains unexplained. Oops—actual spoiler!
There are many touching, tear-worthy moments in the film which I will not reveal. But I will mention that one of them involves karaoke. Specifically, a character you would never expect to sing karaoke takes the microphone and absolutely devastates the audience emotionally.
How awesome are these tidbits that give very little away and yet hopefully intrigue you?
While the cinematography is well done, some of the astrophotography images don’t contain stars. This might not bother most viewers, but it obviously bothered at least one imager in attendance. Since this was the only criticism of the film that I encountered, I am highly recommending that you go see it.
