Tom Hanks: Project Hail Mary review — Cloying encounters
tom hanks The new Phil Lord and Chris Miller film Project Hail Mary follows Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), an astronaut who wakes alone in space to face a mission that may determine Earth’s fate. It is presented as a treacly alien buddy comedy that leans hard on millennial humour and problem-solving setpieces in outer space. The film both delights and provokes doubt about whether its relentless cuteness undercuts the humanity-dooming peril at its core.
Key facts and first impressions
Phil Lord and Chris Miller direct a story drawn from Andy Weir’s work and shaped by screenwriter Drew Goddard in a manner that recalls earlier adaptations from the same novelist and writer. The narrative centres on Ryland Grace, portrayed by Ryan Gosling, who awakens from an induced coma to discover he is the sole human survivor of a voyage; the backstory is revealed in flashback. The primary other human presence is Eva, played by Sandra Hüller, while the emotional and comic heart of the film is the bond between Grace and an extra-terrestrial dubbed Rocky, a multi-limbed creature who arrives from a distant planet facing the same stellar dimming crisis.
The film opens with the blunt, inviting line “So I met an alien…” and builds its tone on a blend of gags, video-diary style confessions and earnest problem-solving. The script leans into a millennial register—described in the film’s texture as close to Reddit-era rage-comic sensibilities—so the humour is ingratiating and often deliberately cloying. One early beat has Rocky mimicking Grace’s dance moves, including a dab, which crystallises the picture’s commitment to cute, meme-inflected comedy.
Tom Hanks and the film’s crowd-pleasing aim
Project Hail Mary is unabashed in its aim to please a demographically specific crowd, and this crowd-pleasing strategy is both its strength and its vulnerability. The comparison to The Martian is explicit: same novelist, same screenwriter, the same lone-protagonist-resolves-impossible-problems model, and a comic voice that speaks directly to viewers through confessional fragments. Rocky and Grace must first bridge communication gaps—Rocky is eventually given a computer-generated voice performed by James Ortiz—before collaborating on collecting material from a nearby planet to neutralise the stellar threat.
Phil Lord and Chris Miller demonstrate industry fluency rooted in prior franchise work, yet the direction does not aim to remake the grand, muscular space spectacles of Spielberg, Cameron or Ridley Scott; instead it nests its spectacle inside continual attempts at emotional charm. That very charm will likely divide viewers: some will find the laughs and the pair bond irresistible, while others may feel the peril loses punch under relentless sweetness.
What comes next
This review leaves open where audience and critical response will settle on the balance between cuteness and stakes. Expect discussion around the film’s tonal choices, the effectiveness of the Grace–Rocky relationship, and whether the comic register sacrifices urgency for likability. For viewers inclined to weigh adaptation faithfulness, comparisons with The Martian and nods to Sunshine will persist as reference points. In the immediate term, conversations will orbit the film’s emotional core and its ability to marry problem-solving spectacle with genuine peril — a debate that will surface even among those who might invoke tom hanks as a shorthand for a different kind of on-screen steadiness.
Time-stamped at 09: 00 ET.
