The Moon landing is a cultural touchstone in the US, so much so that it’s the topic of several big-name movies including Hidden Figures and First Man. Almost as pervasive as the event itself is the myth that someone (in some tellings, Stanley Kubrick) shot the whole thing on a sound stage. Now the two strands are entwined in Greg Berlanti’s amiable rom-com Fly Me to the Moon.
The screenplay from first-time feature writer Rose Gilroy grafts an entirely fictional set of characters onto the factual background of the Apollo 11 mission. So if you’ve seen other movies or docos about the Moon landing, much of the overall scenario will be familiar. The question though is how well the rom-com elements work in that structure. And for me at least, they mostly did.
The film opens in early 1969 with the Apollo program in crisis. Public enthusiasm for President Kennedy’s plan to put a man on the Moon during the 1960s is waning, particularly as the war in Vietnam drags on. President Nixon is now in the White House and is looking for something to cheer the nation up. So the shady and slightly sinister Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson) is tasked with boosting the flagging space program. In typical American fashion, he hatches a plan to do that by… hiring a publicist (!). His choice is Madison Avenue hotshot Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson). When Kelly says she isn’t interested, Moe makes her an offer she can’t refuse. So with faithful assistant Ruby Martin (Anna Garcia) in tow, she heads to Florida.
Once there, Kelly has to contend with the buttoned-down launch director Cole Davis (Channing Tatum). He’s an Air Force veteran who’s had some hard breaks. But he and his team are determined to see the project through. Singularly unimpressed by Kelly’s profession and her new role with NASA, he places obstacles in her path. But as soon as he imposes some new restriction, Kelly finds a way around it. But the biggest part of Kelly’s job is kept strictly secret from Cole. Moe wants her to create a “back-up” film of the Moon landing, just in case something goes wrong. Kelly hires prickly director Lance Vespertine (Jim Rash) for the part. Soon a disused warehouse at Cape Canaveral is transformed into the surface of the Moon, ready for someone to take a “giant leap”.
The opposites-attract storyline is trite, but it floats for a few reasons. One is that Gilroy’s script cleverly blends the real drama of the mission with the fake drama of the romance. She also seems to have put effort into watching movies of the era, because this determinedly PG movie could easily have been made at the time it’s set. This was of course the era of movies like The Odd Couple and The Love Bug. It dallies with exploring the line between truth and fiction, but quickly drops that. The characters are given plenty of snappy one-liners to work with, and generally make the most of them.
If one thing stands out though, it’s the visuals. This is definitely a film to see at the cinema because only the big screen can convey the power and grandeur of the rocket launches. The soundtrack is peppered with hits of the era for an unashamedly nostalgic feel (and yes, it does feature the song that lends the movie its title).
One thing that didn’t really hit for me was the chemistry between the leads. While Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) is excellent, the on-screen romance falls flat, I think due to Channing Tatum (The Lost City). Even when he’s not supposed to be, he comes across as gruff and flat – a real mood-killer. Perhaps he tapped too heavily into the character’s traumatic backstory, but I never quite bought him as a love interest. In the supporting cast, Ray Romano (The Irishman) is great as Harry Smalls, Cole’s deputy; while Anna Garcia makes the most of her smaller part as the bubbly Ruby. Woody Harrelson (Champions) is a bit too likeable as the very suss Berkus. But Jim Rash easily steals the film as the temperamental film director.
Fly Me to the Moon is like a cafe’s playlist – nothing’s confronting or challenging. It’s a likeable, if predictable, romantic romp that (even at a tick over 2 hours) doesn’t outstay its welcome. This is very much a “summer movie” for the US market; but you might find it a little ray of sunshine in an Australian winter.
David Edwards
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David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television