It’s still early in 2026, but once you witness Oscar-nominated actor Ryan Gosling’s riveting portrayal of science teacher/inadvertent planet savior Ryland Grace in “Project Hail Mary” (Amazon/MGM), you may agree that he’s a shoo-in for an Academy Award nomination and may, in fact, take home a statuette. His layered performance draws on both his comedic and dramatic skills in equal measure, combined with his general hotness (wait until you see him in one of his skintight space suits).
Co-directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, with a screenplay by Drew Goddard (based on the acclaimed novel by Andy Weir), “Project Hail Mary” is the kind of uplifting crowd-pleaser that we need at that bleak time. Visually captivating (especially in IMAX) and full of clever film references (watch for the “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” homage), it could have been a full-fledged religious experience if it had been at least 25 minutes shorter.
It’s not worth wasting precious column inches going on about the “scientific mumbo-jumbo” of “Project Hail Mary.” Suffice to say that middle school science teacher Grace loves his subject, and we can see that his students also cherish it by extension. However, his students aren’t the only ones aware of his affinity for astronomy. His awareness of a serious planetary crisis has also earned him the attention of NASA, the US government, and numerous members of the international science community.
Grace adamantly refuses the pressure campaign led by Eva (Sandra Huller) of the Hail Mary project, which is designed to save Earth from an unfortunate fate. Regardless, he soon discovers that Eva literally won’t take no for an answer when he wakes up from an induced coma aboard the spaceship named Hail Mary and realizes he is the sole survivor of the mission. Fully aware that the mission is a death sentence, we watch his transformation as further revelations take place, and we share in his pain and confusion.
However, all is not lost (in space). After making contact with another space vehicle, Ryland comes face-to-face with a highly intelligent, multi-limbed alien who is on a similar mission for their planet. Like Ryland, the being (voiced by James Ortiz), named Rocky by Ryland, is the lone survivor aboard their ship. Teaming up for the good of the galaxy, this dynamic duo embarks on a life-changing odyssey that will forever change their respective destinies.
Far from Gosling’s first time in orbit (see 2018’s “First Man,” for example), what distinguishes “Project Hail Mary” is the way that it provides him the opportunity to flex all the acting muscles in his arsenal. It’s an out-of-this-world performance. Additionally, “Project Hail Mary” features some of the best edge-of-your-seat outer-space sequences since Alfonso Cuarón’s “Gravity” (2013).
Rating: A-
