Review: Greg Berlanti’s Apollo Program Comedy ‘Fly Me to the Moon’

Review: Greg Berlanti’s Apollo Program Comedy ‘Fly Me to the Moon’

by Tamara Khodova
July 22, 2024

There’s an idea about cinema that most filmmakers will tell you about what is going to happen in the film within the first ten minutes. Fly Me to the Moon, directed by Greg Berlanti (also of Love, Simon), is a perfect example of that technique. In the first ten minutes, sly marketing manager Kelly Jones, played by Scarlett Johansson, tries to pitch business executives on buying a sports car with safety belts (it happens in the 60s when any safety measures were still treated as unnecessary accessories). With seatbelts you don’t have to die driving a Mustang and your wife will luckily give you permission to buy something slightly cooler than a Plymouth. This definitely sounds appealing to buyers, and this is exactly what Fly Me to the Moon intends to do, too. It offers audiences a beautiful, smooth and entertaining ride without any risk. What could possibly go wrong…? But cinema without any risk is not as much fun as it may seem to be at first glance.

Fly Me to the Moon is set during one of the most important chapters in the history of contemporary America — the Moon landing in July 1969. After her successful pitch, Kelly meets a shady government worker named Moe (played by Woody Harrelson) who proposes to her a position working at NASA as a PR manager of the future Moon landing. Kelly doesn’t have much of a choice as Moe is well aware of her troubled past and the only alternative to NASA is jail. She has an opportunity to work with great enthusiasm shaking up old government structures and bring some color to boring gray corridors. Of course, not everyone is happy with this rapid change in marketing strategy, especially the launch director of Apollo 11, ex pilot Cole Davis (played by Channing Tatum) who is partly annoyed and partly mesmerized by the presence of Miss Jones.

Berlanti stays true to his promise in the beginning. His film can offer something to any audience. For those who like some action there are snow-white rockets on dispaly, explosions, dramatic set pieces, and heroic astronauts who are trying to achieve what no other human could before. And those who came for romance – there is an emerging relationship between charismatic Cole in a worn-down leather jacket and lively Kelly. The chemistry between these two actors is feeble but realistic enough to keep us enchanted. Johansson is incredible, as always, looking natural even with a ridiculous 60s bouffant. Tatum on the other hand seems too preoccupied with his own image to care about the film’s credibility. He is believable enough as a tragic ex-pilot but it’s really hard to take him for a serious launch director from the 60s, especially with his thumbs in his pants pockets looking like he is ready for a Step Up spinoff. The rest of the cast serves mostly as a comic relief: Woody Harrelson plays a cynical sleazebag on autopilot, Ray Romano is goofing around as a NASA scientist, and Jim Rash comes out as a hyperbolised version of the dean from “Community”.

Unlike many other movies released on streaming platforms recently telling stories about classic American examples of success (i.e. earning a ton of money by any means possible), Fly Me to the Moon is slightly critical of the image-obsessed culture that creates a distorted reality which very easily becomes the truth in the eyes of millions of people. The movie shows that the only way to go forward is to be sincere, but it does this in the most careful way so as not to disturb grumpy audiences too much. Despite the conventional plot, Fly Me to the Moon manages to get us smoothly through its over-2-hours runtime without any accidents and is much less stressful than the mission it’s about. Which is both an advantage and a downside. Berlanti is an experienced filmmaker who knows how to take a movie in the right direction unlike many actors, producers and screenwriters who are nowadays for some reason hired by streaming companies to direct new films.

Tamara’s Rating: 3 out of 5
Follow Tamara on Telegram – @shortfilm_aboutlove

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