IR Film Review: FLY ME TO THE MOON [Apple/Sony]
The initial texture of “Fly Me To The Moon” has some interesting tendencies. Scarlett Johansson is brought in as a PR spinner to help make NASA a cool, well-oiled machine. The irony or play of the element within the story is what gives it pause. Realistically, in the character build and execution, it makes total sense and as a character piece, it is very contextual. But to build such a large scale film around this kind of story is an interesting risk. Now granted Apple is in the midst of doing this kind of experimentation right now but the aspect of ROI on something like this is tricky and has to fit in somewhere. It doesn’t appeal to younger audiences despite Johannson and Channing Tatum in the lead roles. This is more directly aimed at a boomer mentality if anything. Tatum again is well cast but has very little movement character-wise though that is fine. Ray Romano as his right hand man has much more sentiment in play. But moving back again to perspective, the scale is just not necessary despite the fact that the story may warrant it.
The addition of Woody Harrelaon’s government character throws it off as well. Tonally the film ,is a weird amalgamation and is directed by Greg.Berlanti more known for DC Television than a large film like this. For this reason, he is perhaps an odd choice but as a direct producer, Johansson simply might have wanted to work with him. There are some cool sequences like the build of the Apollo rocket and some nice quiet scenes outside the would-be Vehicle Assenbky Building. The set does scale close enough even with digital extensions (I recently was right there for a delayed Artemis launch). But the film itself was mostly shot in Savannah, Georgia. It is great that movies like “Fly Me To The Moon” are being made but the ability or capital to do so might be waning. The story falls apart situationally toward the end but not before the film accomplishes its objective in termsof character arc. B
By Tim Wassberg
