Movie Review: Project Hail Mary
Ryan Gosling catapulted his way into my good books with his stellar performance in Barbie, loudly and proudly embracing a supporting role to a strong female lead. Any man who leans into that with gusto has my respect.
So when his name popped up as the lead in Project Hail Mary, it went straight onto my must-watch list.
A Tuesday rolled around in Tassie, and Lark’s Favourite Aunty™ suggested a midweek cinema escape on her day off. The choice: Project Hail Mary or Michael. While Michael Jackson’s real-life nephew stepping into his shoes is a pleasant surprise, the trailer felt… budget (not the good Hollywood kind). And honestly, I couldn’t shake the controversy. With IVF Frozen Embryo Transfer Cycle 3 underway, I needed feel-good vibes, not a shifty feeling I couldn't shake after watching a film.
Lark’s Favourite Aunty™ had already seen Project Hail Mary, but when given the choice, she chose to see it again. Like the stars in the film, both the celebrities and constellations, we were aligned.
Thank goodness. What a gem Project Hail Mary turned out to be.
What stood out to me most wasn’t the cosplay science. It was the story about a remarkable friendship. There’s no love story here –usual territory for Gosling – but the bond between his character, Grace, and the companion he meets along the way is beautifully done, and tears landed on my cheese more than once. It was charming, tender, and reminded me of the kind of young friendship you experience in your early 20s. Light-hearted, boundaryless, and full of wild optimism that you can actually save the world.
The plot follows Grace, a high school science teacher whose controversial paper gets him exiled from the scientific community… and then recruited by the US Government to help save Earth. He wakes up alone in space, the sole survivor of a mission to stop sun-eating bacteria.
The film weaves present-day survival aboard the spaceship with flashbacks that gradually, and artfully, reveal the most inexplicable truths. Gosling’s charm made him very watchable, although his Hollywood physique and ability to hold eye contact made it difficult to believe his character was a deep science nerd, no matter how many printed t-shirts he appeared in.
Gosling is charming, vulnerable, and just awkward enough to be believable 90% of the time. Which raises the question: how did this man not lock down a long-term partner on Earth? Even his frustration lands more as endearing than angsty–helped along by a soundtrack that keeps things light without undercutting the stakes.
His performance, along with the soundtrack, however, gave the storyline a lightness that radiated feel-good vibes brighter and more magical than infrared particles in space. Tension and release are artfully mastered by the directors Phil Lord and Christopher Mille.
Visually, I never once found myself nitpicking the CGI. I was in. Fully bought it. Deep in my soul, I now believe Ryan Gosling has been to space.
The pacing is relentless in a good way. No scene overstays its welcome, which feels almost engineered for our collectively fried, TikTok-conditioned attention spans. The only time I reached for my phone was to check if the babysitting situation was holding up as well as the plot.
There’s also something powerful in the way the film explores forced intimacy under pressure. That kind of closeness–born out of survival–feels rare in blockbuster storytelling. It taps into something we haven’t really seen since the early Star Wars days, without feeling derivative.
Project Hail Mary absolutely delivers. If you need an emotional sugar hit–something hopeful, human, and just a little bit magic–this is your movie.
Like Lark’s Favourite Aunty™, I’d see it again. 5 choctops out of 5.
