Winning, intensely likeable ‘original’ (adapted, like its near-cousin THE MARTIAN/’15, from an Andy Weir novel), seems to be following the heavily-trod path of one of those Earth Doomed By Approaching Meteor films. All tropes on-board as an international staff of problem-solving scientists and a mixed-crew of brave astronauts go full-speed-ahead to save the planet from extinction. Here, with a failing sun going on as understudy in a role usually played by fast-moving space-mountains. The film a smart, funny version of duds like METEOR/’79 and SUNSHINE/’07, just to name two unhappy attempts. But what truly sets this one apart from previous good versions is how it shifts in the second act* toward a different main storyline, the one where a single person accidentally finds himself alone on some g-normous (space)ship, stumbling toward competence, confidence & enlightenment by mastering his vessel. Even finding a partner to accompany him on the journey. All straight out of Buster Keaton in THE NAVIGATOR/1924. Admittedly, Buster does it in an hour while directors Phil Lord & Christopher Miller take 2½*, but you can’t miss the parallels. Even if Keaton gets a cute deadweight girl for a mate while Ryan Gosling, in a showstopping turn as a Middle-School teacher/contrarian scientist who’s pulled into heroic orbit, gets a stalwart CGI granite figure who nearly steals the pic. Oddly, what plays best and sticks with you here are less the big set pieces than quotidian moments simply watching Gosling on routine duty. Not so for Keaton, perhaps because his set pieces so obviously real things really happening, captured on film at 22fps (give or take) for our amazement.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *The general nit being picked against PROJECT is its length. But the filmmakers use every minute for something necessary and the film earns its 156" running time.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Film structure is scrambled between past & present all thru the film so that act divisions crisscross along with time lines. But architecture very clear from the film’s start which happens to be in the Second Act.
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