Overlooked 'Fly Me to the Moon' swoons with smarts
Apple TV+
Forget what you’ve heard, or maybe ignore all that no one seems to be talking about: “Fly Me to the Moon” is one of the year’s best movies.
The premise brilliantly takes a conspiracy theory and turns it into both a fun, old-fashioned lark and a clever exploration of integrity: What if the 1969 moon landing was both real and faked? And what if the leaders of each effort fell for each other, with both something true bringing them together and something legitimate yet deceitful pushing them apart? And the rom-com was also very funny and highly charming and full of great scenes and people who are awesome at their jobs and bring new things out of each other?
Nah, that doesn’t sound like something anyone would enjoy.
In two terrific, real-deal movie star performances, Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson play Cole Davis and Kelly Jones, respectively, the NASA launch director for the Apollo program and an ad whiz brought in from New York to initially help market the space program — and, eventually, create an absurd backup plan for the Apollo 11 mission that is ultra-confidential and the silliest kind of high-stakes. This provides fodder for a tone that’s sometimes bouncy and other times serious, bearing the weight of risk and death, of the challenge to deliver a scientific breakthrough and the tension when people in a workplace have very different definitions of the ultimate goal at hand.
Meanwhile, Cole and Kelly are excellent characters to bicker and return, to spark from attraction and contrast only to clash over issues about which they also seem to teach each other. He’s fiercely dedicated to his program’s success and professionalism; she’s more about getting things done by any means necessary. Tatum and Johansson nail this dynamic while also not necessarily indulging in next-level chemistry; this is a romance that feels credible, sensible almost, and if you don’t necessarily feel the biggest butterflies you’ve ever felt about them, I’d argue that’s OK and by design.
Writer Rose Gilroy (daughter of Rene Russo and Dan Gilroy!) and director Greg Berlanti (“Love, Simon”) deliver something with unconventional pace and rare charm, supported by a light touch about a hefty idea: the spectrum of acceptable little lies vs. the firm rules of honesty and character that dictate individual behavior and societal function. Add in supporting turns from always-welcome Woody Harrelson (as the shadowy government figure who hires Kelly), Ray Romano (as another NASA employee) and Jim Rash (as a director whose pompousness far outweighs his actual achievements), and “Fly Me to the Moon” finds real verve from its ensemble in scene after scene after scene.
It’s that thing you want and think we can’t have: entertainment with brains, a comedy with surprise, a love story with guts. Can’t believe it either.
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