(Written by Allison Brown)
The space travel subgenre often breeds awards quality pictures, and with a cast including Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum, Fly Me to the Moon has a lot working in its favor. Add in Love, Simon director Greg Berlanti, and you have a charmingly interstellar, comedic delight. Despite clocking in at a lengthy two hours and twelve minutes, the runtime never feels overextended or bloated. Vividly crisp cinematography demands a big screen, despite the eventual drop on Apple TV+. Although future accolades are unlikely to be bestowed, a ticket purchased is a safe bet for date night to satisfy the diverse interests of both genders.
While the script may not be singular, it is still quite good, and leaves very little to pick apart. Editing can be distracting at times with an overuse of transitional wipes and awkward split screens. Lackluster chemistry between both leads is the only major blunder, with Tatum being a weaker link. He comes off wooden and plastic, both physically and emotionally with a performance that feels allocated to some other lesser movie. Thankfully, the varied plot has so much to offer that a lack of believability in the romance portion barely makes an impact.
Peak entertainment comes together impeccably balanced by parodying the space race between the United States and Russia, while also injecting an ode to the sham of advertising. A late entrance of the conspiratorial angle more than halfway in comes as a surprise, given much of the trailer’s marketing hinting in that direction, but it does develop naturally. Perhaps a different approach where the audience must digest whether Project Artemis could have existed, while leaning into a satire of the moon landing’s status as a potential hoax, would have added bigger stakes. Nevertheless, we may ultimately be better off not offering conspiracy theorists more unnecessary fodder. A clear delineation in the denouement leaves nothing up to debate, and propels a layer of patriotism. No surprise here that the release was set so close to the Fourth of July!
Despite their smaller roles, Woody Harrelson and Ray Romano are exceptional. Neither actor receives enough credit in their careers, despite being consistently great. Both are a joy to watch, regularly drawing most of the laughs. Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) as a character provides a welcome feminist angle, leaving women in charge of persuading the American public, as well as respected men in politics and science. Her late-in-the-game character development makes Jones more human, and less like a metaphor for the corrupt and impersonal nature of advertising. Johansson effectively rides the line in her performance between Don Draper type and rom-com lead.
Berlanti makes it clear that Fly Me to the Moon is not meant to be taken as a biopic given its level of hyperbole, only mere fiction with actual historical context in the background. Archival footage effectively weaves in and out, whether played as secondary noise over the radio as we enter a scene, overlaid on an antique television center stage, intercut with the narrative itself to add realism, or overlapped with newspaper clippings in the creatively designed opening credits. History buffs will be pleased by this celebration of American nostalgia, while less inquisitive, casual viewers should be satiated by the riveting comedic script. One’s time invested with Scarlett and Channing is sure to be rewarded in this laugh-out-loud 1960s parody, with just the right amount of dramatic tension.
Take a trip to the outer space when Fly Me to the Moon crash lands in theatres on Friday, July 12.
