Fly Me to the Moon: An engaging touchdown

Fly Me to the Moon (2024) • View trailer

3.5 stars (out of five). Rated PG-13, for fleeting profanity

Available via: Movie theaters

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 7.17.24

Aside from a few sophisticated montages that are clearly cutting-edge-today, the bulk of this film feels like it could have been made when the action takes place, in 1969.

 

Kelly (Scarlett Johansson) and Cole (Channing Tatum) prepare for one of the many key press
events designed to "bring the Apollo program to life" in the eyes of the American public.

That’s no accident; director Greg Berlanti wanted this edgy, sorta-kinda rom-com to feel authentic to its tumultuous era. To that end, cinematographer Dariusz Wolski and editor Harry Jierjian employed cinematic techniques that’ll be familiar to those old enough to remember 1960s techniques: wipes, split screens and a slightly “grainy” looks wholly unlike the sharpness of today’s films.

Although the story takes place against the exciting and suspenseful six months leading up to the launch of Apollo 11, the lengthy first act’s tone — thanks to deft writing by Keenan Flynn, Bill Kirstein and Rose Gilroy — hearkens back to the sharp banter that characterized 1950s Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn comedies.

 

That said, the story’s core moral is the necessity of truth: a message that can’t be emphasized enough these days. It’s therefore ironic that this film’s scripters have taken cheeky liberties with established fact, in order to make that point; indeed, they’ve even borrowed a notorious conspiracy theory that some people believe to this day (and I dearly hope this film doesn’t further fan that fire.)

 

On top of which, we’ve been here before: 1977’s Capricorn One dramatically milked that urban legend ... but Berlanti and his writers have gone in a different direction.

 

Channing Tatum stars as Cole Davis, a former Air Force pilot who now serves as NASA’s launch director. He’s stiff, true-blue and rigorously by-the-book; he also believes that the 400,000 people working on this project — scattered at facilities throughout the country — are doing the most important thing America ever has embraced.

 

Trouble is, NASA has a serious image problem, in these turbulent days of early 1969. The Vietnam War is an unnerving, polarizing and wholly dominating news presence; the Civil Rights movement is in full swing; and people are questioning the money being spent by NASA. The initial excitement generated by President Kennedy’s September 1962 speech — “We choose to go to the Moon!” — and the earlier Gemini space program have become old news. 

 

Worse yet, the disastrous January 1967 Apollo 1 accident that killed three astronauts — Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger B. Chaffee — has left a pall on the entire program.