Project Hail Mary             4 ½ stars

He has been half of a duo in a decades long love affair, a Brooklyn school teacher who makes it a habit of getting high, a man with a doll for a girlfriend, an astronaut walking on the moon and a man who started life as a doll. This time around Ryan Gosling is both a schoolteacher and an astronaut in Phil Lord’s and Christopher Miller’s buddies in space movie Project Hail Mary. Gosling occupies the screen for the entire movie going from well-regarded scientist to public middle school teacher to astronaut to savior of humanity and looks good while doing it. We first find Ryland Grace (Gosling) waking up after a long sleep on a spaceship while sporting a long beard not able to understand where he is. He sees a giant star and realizes that it isn’t the sun so he must be a long way from home. Then he discovers that he is all alone as the rest of the ship’s crew has not survived. Through effective use of flashbacks, we learn the background of his story. Grace was a biologist who published a theory that water may not be necessary to sustain life on other planets, was ridiculed for it then became a schoolteacher in Brooklyn where he inspires his students in science. When it was discovered that there is a space bacteria eating the sun that will eventually make life on Earth extinct, Grace is recruited by Eva Stratt (Sandra Huller of Anatomy of a Fall) to join in the massive research project she leads, to stop the bacteria and save the planet. The team discovers that the bacteria has spread to many stars in the galaxy except for one that has escaped this fate. Thus, if it can be discovered what is unique about this distant star and its planet, a cure could be found. A spaceship that can travel at near light speed is built but before the journey to the mystery planet begins, circumstances change leaving Grace as the best option to join the crew and figure out why that planet was spared. The catch is that there is only enough fuel to get there and not to return, so it will be a one-way trip for the crew. They will have to send their “solution” back to Earth using a deep space probe. (Of course, there are a few credibility issues with the science, such as the large amount of open space inside a spaceship meant to be crewed by only three people.) But that is only half the story. Upon reaching this planet, Grace meets another spaceship that is manned by a lone being from another civilization suffering the same fate as Earth. This species is very different from anything on Earth, having a different chemistry that doesn’t depend on water and looks like a pile of rocks with rock arms. Grace and “Rocky” as he is called cannot share the same atmosphere and have completely different languages, but that doesn’t stop the pair from gradually becoming acquainted and finding a way to work together to solve their common problem. So, it turns out to be a buddy in space movie. “Rocky” depends on the puppetry of James Ortiz who created the puppet and does the translated voice as well. Everything is done to make Rocky appear cute and endearing to the audience so that he feels like another character. Through their struggles, Grace and Rocky grow to really care for each other and as we see they would lay down their life for the other. Besides being an entertaining sci-fi movie, Project Hail Mary gives a message about forming bonds and caring for others that are very different from us. And it likely couldn’t be done nearly as well without the star qualities of Ryan Gosling who has hardly missed in his film roles yet. (Let’s forget about Only God Forgives.) The movie also respects the scientific process and the scientists that work to increase our understanding of the natural world, something we can use today. It is bound to be one of the big hits of the year.