PROJECT HAIL MARY
(director/writer: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller; screenwriter: Drew Goddard, based on the novel by Andy Weir; cinematographer: Greig Fraser; editor: Joel Negron; music: Daniel Pemberton; cast: Ryan Gosling (Dr. Ryland Grace), James Wright (CIA agent), Orion Li (Xi), Sandra Huller (Eva Stratt), Lionel Boyce (mission engineer), Ken Leung (Yao Li-Jie), Milana Vayntrub (Olesya Ilyukhina), James Ortiz (Rocky-voice), Priya Kansara (Mary-voice); Runtime: 156; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producers: Rachel O’Connor, Christopher Miller, Ryan Gosling, Phil Lord, Andy Weir, Amy Pascal, Aditya Sood; Amazon MGM Studios; 2026)
“Crowd pleasing film on space exploration.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Co-directors and co-writers, the former Disney animators, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (“The Lego Movie”/”21 Jump Street”), in their first film in 12 years, along with co-writer Drew Goddard, adapt to the screen Andy Weir’s 2021 novel and make it into a crowd pleasing film on space exploration. It’s overlong, too sentimental and too saccharine. It plays out as a buddy sci-fi film blending together true science with fiction.
“The Martian,” a successful sci-fi film in 2015, was also based on a Weir novel. This original film is a $200 million-plus production.
Dr. Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), sent on a secret government mission light years away, is adrift in the cosmos when he wakes up from a coma a few decades later on his ship in a different solar system and is alone with the bodies of two dead crew members who died in hyper sleep, while left with no memory of how he got there.
Flashbacks fill us in on how he got there, as we learn Ryland is a misunderstood genius molecular biologist who the scientific establishment rejected because he was deemed too radical when he wrote a paper for the science community claiming that single-cell organisms feeding off electromagnetic radiation are threatening the planets as they move through space.
Since Ryland was blackballed in his field, he worked as a middle school science teacher in Cleveland. Eva Stratt (Sandra Hüller, German actress), the representative of a special government task force linked to an international group trying to figure out how humanity can survive if the Earth’s sun dies, believes Ryland has the skill-set needed to help the experimental program do the research to find a way for the Earth to survive. The last-minute survival project, called Hail Mary, hires Ryland to be a consultant. But things change fast, as he’s given a larger part in the project.
Ryland meets a spider-shaped alien named Rocky (James Ortiz-voice) who becomes his friend in outer space.
Gosling’s engaging performance is one of his best ever, as he becomes aware that he’s in over his head and must rely on his alien friend for support. His charm and edginess helps the sometimes-clunky film get over some rough spots and dull moments.
Though it’s an absurd and silly film, the talented directors keep it humorous, visually pleasing (IMAX in theaters), and nerdy enough for the truly nerdy sci-fi fans to scope it out.
REVIEWED ON 3/16/2026 GRADE: B+
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