The new film tries to bundle too much together in one gleaming package \u2013\u00a0but Scarlett Johansson’s movie star appeal keeps it chugging along. <\/p>
By James Mottram\n \t\t<\/p>
Published: Tuesday, 09 July 2024 at 14:18 PM<\/p>
Like the movie equivalent of the easy-listening Frank Sinatra track that it shares its title with, Fly Me to the Moon is a bright and breezy \u201960s-set romcom.<\/p>\n
The backdrop is the Space Race, when America and the Soviet Union tussled to become the first country to put a man on the Moon. An opening of news reel footage reacquaints us with the era, everything from President Nixon to the Vietnam War conflict.<\/p>\n
If this sounds heavyweight, think again.<\/p>\n
Scarlett Johansson plays Kelly Jones, a go-getting advertising executive with a slightly chequered past.<\/p>\n
One day, she\u2019s accosted by Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson), a government operative who wants to recruit her to promote NASA\u2019s man-on-the-Moon mission to both politicians and the general public. This costly exercise requires continued funding to keep it rolling, and Kelly\u2019s got the skills to sell this flight-of-fancy.<\/p>\n
Her biggest stumbling block is Cole Davis (Channing Tatum), a former pilot and the launch director. He\u2019s sharp, handsome and by-the-book. He also does not appreciate Kelly\u2019s elastic approach to the truth, especially when she fakes interviews with the media, using actors to portray the NASA team because they\u2019re more approachable than the real thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is just a customer to you,\u201d Cole bemoans, all too aware of her businesslike nature.<\/p>
Naturally, this sets up the will-they-won\u2019t-they dynamic that is so typical of Hollywood romcoms, and there are certainly some swoon-inducing moments, such as when Cole takes Kelly for a spin in his two-person plane, \u2018Jenny\u2019.<\/p>\n
But despite director Greg Berlanti (The Broken Hearts Club) at the helm, and Johansson and Tatum\u2019s easygoing chemistry, it isn\u2019t enough to make this a particularly fizzing romance, as their potential coupling takes a backseat to the launch itself.<\/p>\n
Scripted by a trio of writers including Rose Gilroy \u2013 whose mother is actress Rene Russo \u2013 the film distinguishes itself when Moe instructs Kelly to create a faked version of the Moon landing.<\/p>\n
Dubbed Project Artemis, this contingency plan is put in place to fool the public in case the real mission goes disastrously wrong. Reluctantly, Kelly recruits Lance (Jim Rash), a high-maintenance director who is tasked with shooting the scene in a warehouse on the base \u2013 without Cole Davis finding out.<\/p>\n
Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n Toying with the age-old conspiracy theory that the Apollo 11 moon landing was a hoax, the script even references famed film director Stanley Kubrick (thought by some to have been involved in replicating the Moon landing).<\/p>\n All this gives the film its motor, as launch day approaches and the creepy Moe continues to flex his government authority. There\u2019s even a subplot involving a black cat, a moggy that feels entirely shoehorned into the story to create havoc at just the wrong moment.<\/p>\n At one point Kelly talks about the Moon landing as \u201ca whole new way to see the world\u201d, and introducing the idea that the government might be corrupt enough to sell the public a fake Moon landing chimes with this idea.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, Fly Me to the Moon doesn\u2019t quite work as a conspiracy-laden tale, just as it splutters as a romantic comedy. Somehow it tries to bundle it all together in one gleaming package \u2013 until the stitching comes undone.<\/p>\n What keeps the film chugging along, primarily, are Johansson and, to a lesser extent, Tatum, who both ooze movie star appeal. Flying to the Moon may be \u201cthe hardest thing that\u2019s ever been done\u201d, comments Cole, but these two make it all look so easy. It\u2019s just a shame that the story isn\u2019t as balanced as one might hope.<\/p>\n Still, for those looking for an easy-on-the-eye, light-on-the-brain romance, this will scratch the itch.<\/p>\n Fly Me to the Moon is released in UK cinemas on Thursday 11th July 2024. <\/strong><\/p>\n Check out more of our\u00a0Film<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>\u00a0to find out what\u2019s on. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n The new film tries to bundle too much together in one gleaming package \u2013\u00a0but Scarlett Johansson’s movie star appeal keeps it chugging along. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":54593,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/07\/fly-me-to-the-moon-review-a-bright-and-breezy-60s-set-romcom.jpg",1750,1162,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/07\/fly-me-to-the-moon-review-a-bright-and-breezy-60s-set-romcom-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/07\/fly-me-to-the-moon-review-a-bright-and-breezy-60s-set-romcom-300x199.jpg",300,199,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/07\/fly-me-to-the-moon-review-a-bright-and-breezy-60s-set-romcom-768x510.jpg",768,510,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/07\/fly-me-to-the-moon-review-a-bright-and-breezy-60s-set-romcom-1024x680.jpg",800,531,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/07\/fly-me-to-the-moon-review-a-bright-and-breezy-60s-set-romcom-1536x1020.jpg",1536,1020,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/07\/fly-me-to-the-moon-review-a-bright-and-breezy-60s-set-romcom.jpg",1750,1162,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The new film tries to bundle too much together in one gleaming package \u2013\u00a0but Scarlett Johansson's movie star appeal keeps it chugging along.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/54592"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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