Project Hail Mary: I am a big fan of Andy Weir and this is due to the movie and book entitled The Martian. The Martian was released in 2015 (!!) and was directed by Ridley Scott starring Matt Damon, primarily and a solid supporting cast with Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels and many others. I liked that it was a positive story, and that it involved very capable people doing very difficult things, but thinking through the problem and working a solution to meet a goal. In that case it was Matt Damon being stranded on Mars, and then the rescue mission to retrieve him. I went to see this new Ryan Gosling movie, knowing that it was in space and that was about it. I didn’t want to know more. I deliberately avoided trailers and commercials, which was made easy because I was out of the country and not watching TV anyway. I booked to go to the IMAX screening in downtown Toronto on March 24 at 3PM. It was a Tuesday, it was during business hours and I expected that the theatre would be mostly empty. Wow was I wrong as the theatre was about 85% full with only the two closest rows being vacant. I thought to myself that the word of mouth on this recent release must be good.

The story involves Ryan Gosling as a scientist and astronaut trying to save the planet from global catastrophe. In very short summary, the sun and its energy is being dimished by an outside force, which will have devastating consequences for the people on Earth. But it is not only our sun, many stars like our sun were being impacted as well, save for one outlier. In a curious situation, this one remote sun seemed to be able to repel the external force. It was up to a small team of human scientists to solve the riddle about why. The task was to fly a small group of astronauts 11+ years up to that sun, see what is happening and then send probes back to Earth with any potential solution. It was made clear that it was a one way journey.

The astronauts are to be put into a controlled coma, and then re-emerge when the ship gets close to its destination. The leader of Earth’s efforts is played ably by Sandra Hueller (of Anatomy of a Fall fame). She manages this team of scientists who are trying to unravel the complexity of the external source. I won’t delve further into it than that because there is much that is revealed and it enhances, for me, the enjoyment of the whole film. I liked this movie. I could have done without the overly cheesey ending, and it could have ended sooner than it did. Having said that, this movies works or not based upon whether you like the Gosling character, in the same way that you needed to like, and cheer for, Matt Damon to be successful. I did. I think that Gosling does an excellent job of being the centre of the story and bringing to it a genuine level of awe, while still bringing some humour, compassion and humanity. For me, this movie is a coming together of various movies like The Martian (not surprisingly) but also Interstellar and also Arrival. These are three of my most favourite space themed movies. As a friend said, he likes watching movies about “capable people”. I think that this is so true. Now do I have questions and obervations about this movie? Most definitely as the science involved with the distances and time relativity as better explained in Interstellar would most certainly have an impact on the activities on Earth.

This movie is told too with a flashback back story approach. It opens with Gosling being awakened in space awaking groggily from his coma. His actions and responses to his situation all would seem perfectly normal for someone being out for that amount of time. We then have flashbacks showing him as he was before he was in space, and the first meeting with Sandra Hueller. Damon and Gosling have senses of humour which work well in their respective movies. I think that it makes them more likeable. Many things happen which move this 2:30 length movie along. I didn’t feel the time at all, but there was a moment when something important occured where I thought to myself “this may go on for another hour then”. I wasn’t shuffling in my seat or checking my watch, I was appreciating what was happening. IMAX does make a difference for these movies in my mind. The larger screen, the bigger sound makes it more immersive as advertised. I am really glad that I saw this movie. It was well acted. It was a story following a character that I cared about. The science was intriguing, as there was a compelling explanation for what was happening. Funnily it is really only until more recently that we could even think about looking to comprehend and do something about an event like this. Fifty years ago we would be a witness to the slow destruction of the planet. This is well worth your time and I would encourage those who have the ability to see this in IMAX.

The English Patient: My partner’s favourite movie and book is this movie from 1996. The story was written by Canadian Michael Ondaatje, and this was a highly celebrated movie with multiple Oscar nominations and wins back in the day. It starred Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Willem Dafoe, Colin Firth, Juliette Bonoche (who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress) and was directed by Anthony Minghella. I had realized that I have never watched this movie from beginning to end. I think I had seen bits and pieces of it when it was on TV back in that day. Remember that? When movies were released first in theatres, then to VHS tape and then to home on TV networks. The cast is excellent and impressive looking so much younger thirty years earlier and the scenery, production design and cinematography are all excellent. The scenes in the desert are reminiscient of Dune and other more recents films which borrowed from this. It won 9 Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, Cinematography, Art Direction, Costume Design, Sound, Editing and Music. In short it was lovely to look at. The story, like Project Hail Mary is told in present at the end of WWII in Italy, as well as in flashback. This is a love story on a couple of levels in summary.

The movie begins in the desert with a bi-plane two seater propeller aircraft flying low above the desert and being shot down. There is a fiery crash and a man is pulled out of the wreck badly burned. He awakens in hospital and is being tended to by Canadian nurse Hana, played by Binoche. She is a kind woman, who cares for her soldier patients. The war is nearing the end in Italy and they need to be on the move. She learns from another patient about the death of a man who she cared deeply about. It seems that anyone who she loves, always seems to die.

Her badly burned patient, played by Fiennes, is not doing well and they are expecting that he will pass away shortly. Hana decides to move him to an abandoned monastery along the way to allow him to be at peace in his last days. She makes him comfortable. She promises to catch up with the company once he is passed. The two meet Willem Dafoe who seems to take a liking to the morphine that Hana has brought for her soldier, as well as a couple bomb experts who dismantle bombs and identify where mines are laid. The one bomb expert is Sikh and Hana takes a liking to him almost instantly. Meanwhile, the flashbacks are for her patient who says that he cannot remember much about himself including his name. Willem Dafoe is skeptical. We see that our patient was a handsome man who was contracted to take photographs of the North Africa coast. He is part of a team. One of the other members of the team is Colin Firth, who has brought along his wife, Katharine to experience life in the desert. Colin Firth’s character needs to leave for another assignment and Katharine stays behind. The story then continues as we learn more about this heavily burned man and his relationship with Katharine. The story continues with revelations about love for both the patient and for Hana.

This movie won the Oscar for Best Picture above the other nominated films Fargo, Jerry Maguire, Secrets & Lies, and Shine, where Geoffrey Rush won for Best Actor instead of Fiennes who has yet to win an Oscar. Looking back now on these nominees I think that many movie enthusiasts would select Fargo for Best Picture. But they are really so difficult to compare, which such different genres. I enjoyed this movie. It was interesting. It was a bit surprising that the one love affair is an adulterous one, but people come together in various circumstances and times and find their person without much plan or expectation of ever changing their own circumstance. War I expect would bring that about even more profoundly with separation and an uncertain future for both party’s concerned. This was absolutely beautiful to look at. I am not sure that the Dafoe character would be so welcomed in this small monastery. Binoche was very good and she is instrumental in the life of her patient. Fiennes and Thomas look so very young and they acted splendidly in this movie, with well deserved nominations. This is worth seeing. If it was ever in a regular theatre again I would see it there.