SCREEN SHOT - Project Hail Mary

Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) wakes up, his hair and beard are long, and he is on a space craft. He doesn't remember why or where it is going. Two fellow astronauts on the mission are both already dead. He has to slowly piece together his own past and his role in the mission they were on, with only the ship and his own slowly returning memories to guide him. What becomes clear is the Earth's Sun is dying. Small particles of unknown origin, are eating away at its energy. He identifies what they are, and where they are coming from. A space mission is launched to hopefully find out more and discover a way to neutralise these particles. And he is the only survivor of that mission. He encounters an alien spacecraft, and befriends this rock like alien form, whose own galaxy is being destroyed by the same particles. Together they come up with a plan.

This is Ryan Gosling's movie. He is the lead actor and is in most of its two and a half hour running time. He was a big fan of the book by Andy Weir, hands on in its adaption for film, and was one of its producers. In an age preoccupied with dark fatalistic dystopia's, this is an extraordinarily optimistic sci fi movie, with a sharp witty script to boot. This also brings out, quite the best acting performance I've seen from Gosling, since some of his early independent movies. It plays to all his strengths as an sctor, the slight nerdiness, the dry quick wit, the ability to speak volumes with a telling look in the eyes. The part of Grace is really one of an ordinary person who becomes extraordinary through the circumstances they are thrown into. The unlikely friendship that develops between Grace and 'Rocky' sets the film's core emotional tone. And unbelievable as it might seem, this friendship becomes really emotionally touching, bringing a lump to your throat and a tear to your eye. If there was ever a danger of this movie becoming overly sentimental, it's the honesty of Gosling's performance, and the dialogue between Grace and 'Rocky' that deflates time and again, any tendency to take itself too seriously. This is just the most hopeful and delightfully playful movie I've seen in a long time. Highly recommend it.

CARROT REVIEW - 7/8