Amazing Graces: A review of 'Project Hail Mary'

Grace (Ryan Gosling) wakes up in unfamiliar surroundings, and soon discovers he’s inside a rocket flying through space. There’s a hose-length tube down his windpipe. He’s in an outfit more suitable for confinement than fashion. His hair, beard and, I imagine, nails are overgrown to extremes. He’s a mess. And oh, he can’t remember anything about where he is, when he is, why he’s there or who he even is.

“Project Hail Mary” is based on a novel by Andy Weir, whose previous work “The Martian” was adapted by Drew Goddard into a hit 2015 movie. This writing team is back together, this time with direction from the blue-chip entertainment duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (“Spider-Verse” movies). This new endeavor will face inevitable comparisons to the previous space movie, but other than a strong focus on science, these films are distinct in style, tone and theme.

Gosling unofficially showcases a double acting performance, playing two different versions of the lead character.

Grace Awakened is disoriented and out of sorts from his interstellar coma, but works quickly to piece together what’s going on. Amnesia may have wiped his brain one way, but still intact are his intellect and scientific acumen along with a formidable sense of humor.

As his memory starts coming back, we as the audience join him on his journey through regeneration. Every new recollection leads to a fresh flashback of Earth prior to his slumber.

Grace Remembered is in the past. He’s an affable, charming middle school teacher, one of those superb STEM educators (thank you for your service) that we’ve had at least once in our live. You know the type, an amazing shaper of minds who left an indelible impression on you or perhaps inspired you to a career in science.

Thanks to a unique academic background, he gets recruited for a special pan-governmental mission to save the human race from a mysterious ailment afflicting the sun. The world unites in this singular purpose (I’m guessing North Korea still refuses to join) to figure out a path to deep space, diagnose the issue and either repair the damage or send instructions home.

In the early stretches of the movie, Grace Awakened is alone, aside from a humorless AI computer on the ship. In space, no one can hear your dad jokes, but Gosling pulls off the challenging task of performing a one-man act to a zero-man audience. The humor, as well as an elite collection of funny graphic T-shirts, showcases the terrific alliance among the film’s creative collective. And Gosling is the perfect choice for the role.

As Grace Awakened reaches his destination, he encounters an “astronaut” from another distant part of the galaxy whose sun is sick, and whose people are also in grave danger. The core of the film quickly becomes the relationship between him and his newfound friend Rocky (played and puppeteered by James Ortiz), as they join forces to save their respective homes.

It is a wholesome, heartwarming affair of interstellar and interspecies bonding between these two brothers from another mother(ship) as they first learn to communicate, and then grow to trust each other.

To match the emotional heft of the story, there’s plenty of brilliant technical execution in the crafting of this film with immersive, jaw-dropping visuals from cinematographer Greig Fraser (“Dune”) and an utterly gorgeous, atmospheric soundtrack by Daniel Pemberton (frequent collaborator of Lord and Miller’s).

As befitting the source material, the characters are well fleshed out. The acting is authentic and the production design looks very much lived in. Notable among the supporting cast is the leader of the mission, Eva Stratt, played by Sandra Hüller. Her “serious movie” bona fides from European cinema (“Tony Erdmann,” “Anatomy of a Fall”) are vital to Grace’s story. She’s got a coldly efficient, anything-it-takes personality positioned in delicious contrast to the warmly jocular, anything-goes nature of Grace Remembered.

Noteworthy too is the movie’s deftly executed film editing, which does the heavy lifting to illustrate his memory returning piece by piece with scenes going back and forth between present and past. This restoration is a wonderful way to provide character development for both Grace Awakened and Grace Remembered, the best of this sort of conceit I’ve seen since “Memento.”

The path of Grace Remembered obviously shapes the current timeline as Grace Awakened’s memories recover. And as his relationship with Rocky evolves, we eventually meet a singular, synthesized man, newly risen through the crucible of mortal danger and humanized by the love of a newly discovered friendship.