Cinephile No. 1,199 “Fly Me to the Moon”

Recommendation: 4/5 Stars, SHOWTIME  

Plot: “Marketing maven Kelly Jones wreaks havoc on launch director Cole Davis's already difficult task. When the White House deems the mission too important to fail, the countdown truly begins.” -IMDB

Review: I wish time travel was possible. There are countless moments in history I would visit. Moments in my own life I want to revisit, and other moments I missed completely. A moment in American history that fascinates me and would be one of my first stops is the space race of the 1960’s. I wish I could have been there to cheer on my country as we barreled toward a new frontier in human exploration. I imagine the setbacks and triumphs would have been intoxicating and consuming for a curious kid. As a student of history, I can only read and watch the accounts of others who stood in awe when we finally landed a man on the moon.  

The monumental moment of man’s first steps on a new world always possessed the potential to give birth to conspiracy theories and public doubt. Sprinkle in the Cold War and the fact that the Russians were first in space to the mix, and you get the recipe for a potentially fascinating movie.  

Fly Me to the Moon attempts to take the space race and the ensuing conspiracies and morph them into one long marketing campaign that is part romantic comedy and part historic drama. Now, from the outset, I must admit my expectations for this movie weren’t high. But as you read on, I think you will see that I was pleasantly surprised.  

Scarlett Johansson stars as Kelly Jones, a Manhattan marketing guru who uses every tool in her belt to land big corporate clients. But there is more to Kelly than meets the eye. She has a checkered and mysterious past ripe for exploitation if the truth ever fell into the wrong hands.  

Which is exactly what happens when Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson) enters the picture. Berkus works for the federal government in the Nixon administration. Among top government officials, there is growing worry that NASA will not land a man on the moon. If America falls short of this lofty goal, there is fear about what America’s failure on a global stage could mean for the Cold War. With this fear, Berkus approaches Kelly Jones with a proposition she cannot refuse; sell the moon or else.  

Enter Cole Davis, played by Channing Tatum. Davis is a seasoned combat veteran who once wanted to chase space. Due to health challenges, those dreams were cast aside. Now, he leads the team with a singular mission of getting a man to the moon before the end of the decade. The goal itself is nearly impossible, and NASA is racking up failure after failure and falling further behind the Russians. To Davis, this is part of pursuing groundbreaking work.  

With little say in the matter, Kelly Jones enters Davis’s world of NASA. Now, it is worth pausing here to mention that Johannson and Tatum have excellent chemistry together. Every disagreement and tender moment shared between them feels authentic. As they bicker and battle, it feels humorous and heartfelt. As you watch them at war, pay attention to how gross it feels that it took advertising and some old-fashioned capitalism to force people to care about the moon.  

As we inch closer to actual launch day, countless battles over mission versus marketing are waged, but then the government’s true intentions are revealed. They see landing on the moon as a national imperative, where failure is not an option. To ensure success, they want Jones to tape a fake moon landing that can be shown if things go terribly wrong. This leads to a hilarious subplot for anyone thinking about voting for RFK.  

While the conclusion of this film is widely known, and one of those rare moments that brought the world together, arriving at that final moment still felt dramatic and heavy. It was these scenes that impressed me and made this film feel necessary. As the truth comes out and science wins the day, this story charmed me, romance and all. Without a doubt, I found my mom’s new favorite movie.  

Be good to each other,  

Nathan