Fly Me to the Moon [Review]
Fly Me to the Moon isn’t quite what the marketing would have you believe.
Greg Berlanti, better known for his television work with WB and then CW networks, has directed a new rom-com that takes place during the months leading to the Apollo 11 moon landing mission. Berlanti takes a promising premise and wastes it on a film that’s forgettable at best.
It’s 1969, and hotshot New York marketing exec Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) is approached by shady government agent Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson) with a job and a promise. Support for NASA is waning, and the powers that be want Kelly to use her marketing skills to “sell the moon” to the American public and prevent the loss of funding, in exchange for wiping records of her past clean. Kelly accepts the offer and moves to Cape Canaveral with her assistant to do the job, where she butts heads with Cole Davis (Channing Tatum), NASA launch director and man in charge.
For a film that was sold as a comedy about a top secret film shoot for a back-up moon landing that would be shown if the real mission fails, that detail is notably missing from my summary. That’s because the fake moon landing is a subplot that doesn’t happen until the second half of the film. It turns what could have been a truly interesting movie into a by-the-numbers romantic comedy with a predictable arc and a lack of focus.
Due to that lack of focus, the film runs over two hours. It would have been far stronger had it focused on a core plot thread and stuck with it—either the idea of marketing NASA, or the idea of a backup plan to fake the moon landing—the latter which is obviously the more exciting, compelling choice. Early on, Jason Bateman was attached the project, but left over creative differences prior to principal photography. I’m curious what the script looked like at that stage and how Bateman’s idea of the film would have been different.
Fly Me to the Moon will be in theaters Friday, July 12.
