TMS Movie Review: Fly Me to the Moon
(Apple Studios / Sony Pictures)
Even with my current enjoyment of romance themed movies we’ve been receiving in 2024, it still appears to be an uphill battle at the box-office for the genre as Greg Berlanti’s Fly Me to the Moon proves. While the film is a quasi-romcom/historical dramedy starring big names in Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum, a lot of audiences were seemingly put off by its peculiar marketing choices, and unsurprisingly so. With various plotlines going through this feature, why would Sony choose to focus on the one that is probably the most negatively viewed conspiracy theories in world history?
In Fly Me to the Moon, our leads are the fictional characters of Kelly Jones (Johansson), part-advertising saleswoman, part-scammer who looks like a beauty pageant queen, and Korea War vet Cole Davis (Tatum), now working as a head director at NASA in the late 1960s. When a government agent named Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson) recruits Kelly to manage the public marketing of NASA’s mission to the moon, sparks instantly fly romantically and literally between the opportunist and the no-nonsense manager in preparation for the space race. Jim Rash plays Kelly’s former boss and an aspiring filmmaker, Anna Garcia is her feminist supporting PA, and Ray Romano co-stars as a longtime colleague of Cole’s. Fly Me to the Moon is directed by Berlanti of Life as We Know It (2010) and Love, Simon (2018), and has Rose Gilroy making her screenplay debut.
(Apple Studios / Sony Pictures)
Though the story is centered around the real process of the moon landing, along with a made-up scenario where the government insists they ‘need’ fake footage as a back-up plan if the mission fails; this is essentially a romantic comedy above all. Kelly and Cole have a traditional ‘will they or won’t they’ dynamic throughout the picture. It should be noted that while the characters do agree to shoot the ‘alternative’ footage, this arc doesn’t even appear until mid-way through the film and—spoiler—we evidently make it to the moon. All the good characters agree faking footage is wrong and the script makes fun of the concept regularly. At the same time, because this is based on one of the most famous moments in US history, there really aren’t any high stakes or tension on whether the flight through space will be successful since we already know how it ends.
Fly Me to the Moon features plenty of retro aesthetics from the costume design and art direction to the use of scene wipes and both vertical and horizontal split-screen shots common with movies of the era. Ultimately though, the film is mostly a reminder of how much of a natural movie star Scarlett Johansson is. She not only looks perfect in her ‘60s hair & make-up and seems like she’s having a blast with the comedy gags, but also effortlessly sells the movie all on her own. Garcia and Rash serve as good foils for her to play off of and Tatum is effectively charming as the straight-forward male lead.
Although the film doesn’t really offer anything groundbreaking or original, I would say Fly Me to the Moon is still decent, safe romcom fluff if you’re looking for something to watch at the end of the day.