Summary
Set against the backdrop of the 1969 Moon landing, Greg Berlanti’s romance effortlessly blends sixties charm with screwball comedy
There’s not necessarily a huge amount in FLY ME TO THE MOON that screams Greg Berlanti. That’s probably because this film, a romantic dramedy set against the backdrop of the 1969 Moon landing, first found its feet under the directorial eyes of Jason Bateman under the working title of Project Artemis.
What TV maestro Berlanti retains from his oeuvre is a seemingly effortless sense of charm. His first theatrical outing since 2018’s Love, Simon, this time from a screenplay by Rose Gilroy, luxuriates in the swinging style of the sixties. The rom-com aspects and historical context blend to create an interesting and often successful mix of tones.
During the height of the Space Race between the US and the Soviet Union, slick marketing specialist Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) is hired by the government to give NASA a public image makeover. She soon forms a relationship with Cole Davis (Channing Tatum), the Apollo launch director who is still reeling from his part in an earlier tragedy.
There’s a throwback quality to the romantic comedy, and not just because of the retro setting. The screwball stylings go back even further in cinema history, and there’s even a little Hepburn in Johansson’s rapid-fire quipping. Tatum, who reportedly replaced Chris Evans, makes for a charming romantic lead, carrying just the right level of off-screen pain to generate pathos.
In the back half of the film, a comedy of errors is generated from the simultaneous staging of a faux Moon landing for television in case the real one fails. Much of this comes from Jim Rash’s over-the-top film director character, slipping in Kubrick jokes whenever possible. (Here we also get Woody Harrelson’s G-Man as a kind of villain, but only inasmuch as he’s the bureaucratic blocker). Any sense of urgency is only partially created by the countdown to the launch, and the rest is a series of mini-crises that delay an established historical fact.
Of course, the whole scenario is a narrative convenience. Taking a leaf out of Hallmark, the Moon landing is a kind of neat visual analogy for embittered Kelly’s journey to loving Christmas (or in this case, space exploration). They even have a ragtag series of likeable supports, not least of whom is Ray Romano as the beleaguered stand-in Cole’s best friend.
FLY ME TO THE MOON doesn’t so much take off like a rocket as it gracefully glides across the lower atmosphere before parachuting down to a safe spot. If you look too closely, you’ll undoubtedly find numerous holes worth picking at but at the end of the day it’s a rom-com. It’s not rocket science.
2024 | USA | DIRECTOR: Greg Berlanti | WRITERS: Rose Gilroy | CAST: Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Jim Rash, Anna Garcia, Donald Elise Watkins, Noah Robbins, Colin Woodell, Christian Zuber, Nick Dillenburg, Ray Romano, Woody Harrelson | DISTRIBUTOR: AppleTV+, Sony Pictures Releasing | RUNNING TIME: 132 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 11 July 2024 (Australia), 12 July 2024 (USA)
