In the spirit of this blog’s name (Weekly Wilson) I have a stream-of-consciousness review of tonight’s film, “Fly Me to the Moon,” which opened tonight at the newly-revamped VIP14 theater (previously Regal 8) in Moline, Illinois. It’s 6 days since my last post.
Readers will remember that I was mourning the loss of the only theater on the Illinois side of the Quad Cities and memorializing the closing of the Icon Theater in the South Loop of Chicago.
Fly me to the Moon
Scarlett Johansson’s executive-produced outing as the P.R. woman tasked with filming a “fake” moon launch is an Apple project, which was filmed on locations in Georgia and Savannah, as well as in Florida at Cape Canaveral. The production was actually able to capture a real launch when filming at the Kennedy Space Center.
THE GOOD
VIP14 in Moline, Illinois.
Director Greg Berlanti, working from a script by Rose Gilroy (and Keenan Flynn and Bill Kirstein), has concocted a rom-com with comedic elements. Jim Rash, portraying the fictional director Lance Vespertine, is terrific. Woody Harrelson is the White House operative who enlists Johansson to make the Apollo 11 mission to the moon popular, Moe Berkus. Ray Romano portrays Henry Smalls, who is working with Channing Tatum portraying Launch Director Cole Davis.
Moe Berkus lays out the task to Scarlett Johansson’s character of Kelly Jones (who later says her real name is Winnie): she must film a fake landing on the moon, which will be broadcast as the real deal. When she shows up at NASA, she tells Channing Tatum’s character of Cole Davis: “Americans are long over their expensive love affair with space and I’m here to remind them why they fell in love in the first place.” We are reminded that during its first 29 missions, NASA had only a 48% success rate. The efforts to convince key Senators to support the space program financially is well portrayed, since the battle for funding is never-ending.
Channing Tatum, who portrays Cole Davis, is not happy about lying to the American public. Woody shuts him down quickly, saying, “She’s made you (NASA) the Belle of the Ball. Just slip on your tutu and do some dancing.” The film recaps some of the clever ways that public relations tie-ins are utilized, such as the use of Omega watches or Tang tie-ins. As is the case right now with our upcoming presidential race, “This isn’t just a race for the moon. It’s a race to see which ideology governs.”
THE BAD
VIP14 in Moline, Illinois.
As another critic has expressed, he became less interested in the actual moon launch and more interested in the budding romance between the main characters.
The other flaw, which may not matter if you’re streaming it at home, is that, at 2 hours and 12 minutes (plus previews) this seemed like an overly long movie. At the point where we are landing on the moon, I was ready to be done. It was opening night for this theater’s new management and I did not pace my pop-drinking as I would have done for “Barbie” or “Oppenheimer.” (My bad).
This one should be a hit when it streams. It was fun to see Johansson’s real-life husband, Colin Jost (of SNL), portraying Senator Cook of South Carolina, articulating the line about a Killer Lunar Laser Eliminator.