“Fly Me to the Moon” hijacks the mom of all conspiracy theories for our rom-com age.
The ’60s-era movie follows a love story entangled in a faux moon touchdown scheme.
Sound foolish? It’s till it isn’t. After which it’s once more.
“Fly Me to the Moon” presents some retro attraction, two interesting leads and a rom-com construction that received’t make your eyes roll. That’s more and more uncommon of late. You’ll need to swallow the movie’s meandering tone to soak in its old-school pleasures.
Scarlett Johansson stars as Kelly Jones, a advertising and marketing whiz tasked with making NASA each hip and worthy of presidency money. The Area Race is on, however not each politician is keen to steer sufficient dollars to emerge victorious.
Go away it to Kelly, whose magnificence and guile cut back grown males to quivering puddles.
Cole Davis (Channing Tatum) is an exception.
Positive, they’ve a meet-cute second early within the movie, however as NASA’s launch director, he doesn’t like how Kelly bends the reality to get issues achieved. Little does he know she’ll do greater than bend it quickly sufficient.
She’s coerced into staging a pretend moon touchdown by a mysterious operator (Woody Harrelson, having a blast) simply in case the precise mission fizzles.
Will Cole and co. deposit a person on the moon? Can Kelly persuade sufficient bureaucrats to choose up the tab? How typically will the movie take pot pictures at President Richard M. Nixon, whose Watergate chicanery remains to be years away?
Fairly often, to reply the latter query. The movie additionally mocks individuals of religion, one other signal you’re watching a Twenty first-century manufacturing.
In any other case, “Moon” delivers a extra considerate model of rom-com. Sure, you’ll snicker, principally because of sly supporting turns by Harrelson and Ray Romano. The latter performs a NASA veteran who has extra on the road than mere hubris.
The unabashed scene stealer? Jim Rash performs a fey director tasked with making the fake touchdown come to life. Sure, he’s a strolling, whining cliche however Rash makes him marvelous anyway.
The manufacturing values are spotless, recreating the feel and appear of the late Sixties with out shoving it in our faces. Johansson reminds us how versatile she might be, flitting from sober advertising and marketing guru to somebody melting over Cole’s ethical code.
Tatum doesn’t need to stretch as a lot. He’s the sober spokesman for science, though his equilibrium will get wobbly every time Kelly enters the body.
“Moon” boasts a zippy enchantment straight out of a ’50s rom-com, however there’s method an excessive amount of story in play. The movie blows previous the two-hour mark when a tighter operating time could be a greater match. Did Rock and Doris ever cling round that lengthy?
We’re exhausted by the top, and the “will-they-or-won’t-they” factor of the story turns into an afterthought.
You half anticipate “Moon” to say one thing profound, or profoundly apparent about trendy conspiracy theories. That will have damaged the spell Johansson and Tatum attempt so arduous to evoke. One sequence finds Cole defending “science,” and it’s arduous to not think about Dr. Anthony Fauci demanding a crooked closeup.
The main target returns to the overblown plot in play, and we’re again within the Sixties. “Moon” lands precisely the place it ought to when it remembers the interval in query.
HiT or Miss: “Fly Me to the Moon” presents a throwback romantic comedy that, sadly, overstays its welcome.