Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum soar in the hilarious ‘Fly Me to the Moon’

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Frank Sinatra and Stanley Kubrick have nothing on this!

Taking place during the 1960s Space Race, Fly Me to the Moon follows marketing expert Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) as she’s hired by the U.S. government to work with NASA and improve their public image to drum up support for the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon.

Kelly’s vain, cynical attitude causes her to frequently butt heads with launch director Cole Davis (Channing Tatum), who is upset with her cavalier nature cheapening NASA’s image.

As the Apollo 11 mission grows closer and gets too big to fail, the government further tasks Kelly with creating a backup fake Moon landing to air to the public, further complicating her relationship with Cole and NASA.

Fly Me to the Moon is certainly an odd premise for a movie when you consider everything about it. It tells a fictional story about making a fake film showing the first Moon landing, but it’s not some conspiracy theory farce.

The Moon landing here is still very real and goes off without a hitch, but director Greg Berlanti and screenwriter Rose Gilroy offer a fun little alt-history perspective of some hijinks that “feasibly” could have gone on behind the scenes.

The duo strikes an intriguing balance that not only explores the actual reality of the Apollo 11 mission, but also the fictionalized aspects of these characters making their recreation, both in their own uniquely compelling ways.

As it goes for most romantic comedies, Kelly and Cole could not be more different than each other. Cole is a man who’s honest to his core, having an ex-military background which translates to how seriously he takes his duty as a NASA launch commander.

In contrast, Kelly is nothing but artifice, constantly lying and scheming to achieve her goals. It’s all really a front, however, as you can see in some moments that she really does have a heart. It’s just not having a heart has always seemed to work out better for her.

What I found most interesting about this dynamic was Kelly and Cole just didn’t represent both the real and fictional aspects of this film’s Apollo 11 mission, but also the film’s two different tones.

Kelly is our main character and whenever we’re focusing on her, Fly Me to the Moon is light and breezy with lots of quirky comedy. She’s constantly wheeling and dealing, never afraid to manipulate people in many amusing, albeit unethical, ways.

Most of the scenes with just Cole and what his character was going through are incredibly somber, as he carries a lot of guilt due to his past failings as launch commander. These moments offer the necessary humanity in a film that would have just been operating on pure cynicism with Kelly’s character.

The shifts between the comedic and dramatic scenes do feel a bit jarring at times, but I felt like Berlanti and Gilroy mostly weaved the two genres together well enough. Both the emotional and funny beats had the exact impact they were meant to.

Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum are both incredibly charming leads and form a perfect on-screen pair. Their chemistry is immediately on fire once they’re interacting with each other, even if their characters are completely at odds for most of the runtime.

While he’s definitely the more serious character, Tatum gets to occasionally employ his signature dry comic delivery, providing plenty of laughs. You could really feel his constant annoyance with Kelly’s obnoxious attitude and all of her interference, trying his best to maintain his stoic brand of charisma.

As one would expect as the story goes on, Kelly grows more and more of a heart as her relationship with Cole and the Apollo 11 mission develops, seeing the errors of how she operates as a person. Johansson gets to greatly flex her acting chops in these scenes, slowly breaking down her character’s façade with her subtle facial expressions.

The rest of the cast is great, particularly Ray Romano, Woody Harrelson, Anna Garcia, and Jim Rash. What’s even better is that this supporting cast gets more than just lines to read and actually has their own fleshed-out characters with their own little arcs. Some of these character moments even caught me by surprise at the end, completely recontextualizing prior events.

While I appreciated the detail in showing us every aspect of this story and crafting the characters within, it, unfortunately, made for a film that was just way too long and could have been trimmed by 20 minutes. It’s pretty clear where everything is going to go, so by the last act, I was just kind of waiting for it to all wrap up. There was no reason for this to be over 2 hours.

There are three distinct moments where it feels like it’s building up to the big finale, but since there are still unresolved plot threads each time, you know it’s not really the end. Instead, more plot elements and stakes are introduced, which felt like they complicated the narrative more than complimenting it.

With the plot expanding and the stakes rising, the comedy takes an unfortunate backseat during the second half. Johansson and Tatum are still a delight together but Fly Me to the Moon falls into your typical rom-com traps where things just get too serious at the end. I was still engaged, but that initial spark wasn’t really there.

At least this all leads to a legitimately fantastic climactic final scene. Despite a lot of story elements at play, it was a joy to see all of these little pieces fall into place at the end. It was all a bit too much, but props to Berlanti and Gilroy for making sure every little thing mattered to make for an emotionally satisfying conclusion.

There is a sense of earnestness with Fly Me to the Moon, where even though it’s telling a fictional story, at its core, it’s a true story that speaks to the ingenuity of the human spirit. These fictional characters are compelling on their own, but weaving their personal struggles with the struggles of the Apollo 11 mission emphasized how this had an effect on humanity in many different ways.

While it may not be as groundbreaking or impactful as the actual Moon landing itself, Fly Me to the Moon is a more than hilarious rom-com-drama that gets plenty of mileage out of its stars and off-kilter premise. It could have benefited from a tighter script so it didn’t really overstay its welcome, but if you’re looking for something a bit more old-fashioned led by two of Hollywood’s most marvelous actors, Fly Me to the Moon is worth blasting off with.

Fly Me to the Moon will open in theaters nationwide on Friday, July 12.

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