The new movie Project Hail Mary was a creative and inventive piece that was captured perfectly by Ryan Gosling. As a Chatfield Senior High School writer for our high school online newspaper ChattyMatters.com, I was given the amazing opportunity to attend the press screening for Project Hail Mary, and it really was an eye-opening experience.
Known most for movies like The Notebook and La La Land, Project Hail Mary marks another major milestone in the career of Ryan Gosling, where he immerses himself into the role of Dr. Ryland Grace–an ordinary middle school science teacher who is unexpectedly tasked with saving the world. This movie takes a step away from the romanticism and love story roles that Ryan Gosling usually finds himself in. Gosling owns most of the narrative, blending humor and science fiction of an unlikely hero being able to overcome obstacles to save humanity. Grace begins the story as a regular science teacher who has little to no desire to become a part of an incredibly important space project.
After waking up alone on a spacecraft, Gosling was incredible in capturing Grace’s confusion, fear, and determination while he worked to solve the mystery of why our sun was dying. This expertly crafted and layered performance makes this movie worth seeing, and the character development of an ordinary individual being thrown into extraordinary circumstances is a concept played perfectly by Ryan Gosling.
Project Hail Mary isn’t only a movie; it is an inspiring, emotional story that follows someone who is consumed with grit and determination. An unexpected companion that Grace finds along the way, Rocky, is a symbol of how we can learn to communicate with those unlike ourselves. Gosling adds to this idea by presenting his new way of communicating with Rocky with effortless humor, and makes it seem almost obvious that he had to connect with this new companion to make strides in his effort to save the sun. Nevertheless, the contrasting and ever-changing role of Dy. Ryland Grace, that this movie exhibits, Gosling was able to take on the responsibility and present Grace exactly how he was meant to be. Gosling, inevitably, was the perfect fit for this project, and the ability to see that as an audience member was almost mesmerizing.
So, for those of you out there who enjoy science fiction, humor, and adventure, Project Hail Mary has all of it. The movie itself will be released on March 20th. So if you can, you must make plans to go view it. Seriously, it’s AWESOME.
