‘Fly Me to the Moon’ (review)

As we close out the 60s, there seems to be no end to the Cold War. The current stakes are literally to the moon and back as the US and Russia have each claimed they’ll be the first to plant their flag.

But is NASA really prepared?

With a secretive and non-camera ready workforce, they are facing a public image problem. Besides that, their engineers are still no closer to landing a man on the moon after already spending millions of taxpayer dollars. Congressional budget cuts are looming, and constituent concerns are more terrestrial as countless Americans are losing their lives in Vietnam.

How can NASA get the funding they need to win the space race?

Greg Berlanti’s Fly Me to the Moon utilizes the historic Apollo 11 moon landing as the setting for one of the biggest hoaxes in history – or at least the potential for it.

In order to secure the needed funding for NASA to continue, Nixon’s shadowy agent Moe Burkus (Woody Harrelson) convinces the flashy PR/marketing guru Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) to spitshine and fix up the public image of NASA ahead of budget votes and the space launch. When her work runs around, through, and afoul of launch director Cole Davis (Channing Tatum), clean and cute hijinks ensue.

One of the key elements of the classic 60s sex comedy is the chaos vs control aspect, with women usually representing the former and men calmly (and handsomely) representing the latter.

Channing Tatum always shines as the square-jawed, good soldier “just trying to do my job” type. But it’s his excellent sense of timing, both comedic and otherwise, that makes his performance sing. Some of the best laugh lines are from Tatum being the straight man, and that is a feat in a movie with Ray Romano, Jim Rash, and Woody Harrelson.

Tatum brings an honesty to Cole that is less naievete and more duty, a calming force to Johansson’s bouncy but superficial energy. His ease in character only highlights how hard it feels that Johansson is trying.

Yes, the woman is in advertising so of course there’s a fakeness that is inherent to the character, but that makes it even more disappointing when Johansson does not go big with a more madcap moment. As long as the film is maintaining an even keel, however, she give a steady and pleasant performance.

When Burkus forces Kelly to stage the moon landing, she has to hide the entire project from Cole, threatening their fledgling romance. These more serious turns are hard to balance with such light and frothy fare. Pillow Talk is a classic but could it really have handled espionage?

Luckily, in the midst of the heavier emotions a camp-as-the-Tang-is-orange Jim Rash (playing faux moon landing director Lance Vespertine) brings swishy fun to the farce.

Fly Me to the Moon brings us back to a time when the entire country was united by a dream that many had deemed impossible. So impossible, in fact, that an equally impossible hoax needed to be pulled off. The suspension of belief may seem quaint, but so is this film.

Because sometimes we don’t need to deeply ponder the stars.

Sometimes, it’s okay to just watch them twinkle and look pretty for 2 hours and 12 minutes.

*  *  *  *  *
Produced by Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Lia,
Keenan Flynn, Sarah Schechter
Screenplay by Rose Gilroy
Story by Bill Kirstein, Keenan Flynn
Directed by Greg Berlanti
Starring Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum,
Jim Rash, Ray Romano, Woody Harrelson