Fly Me to the Moon Review

Fly Me to the Moon is the fourth Apple Original Movie released in cinemas and the second where they partnered with Sony. This time they made a star-led romcom set during the Space Race.

In 1969 NASA was underfunded but expected to land a man on the Moon by the end of the decade. To make space travel sexy again, a mysterious man from the American government recruits Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) to be the head of NASA’s Public Relations Department. She soon finds herself in conflict with Cole Davis (Channing Tatum) who sees her actions as destroying the integrity of the mission. Their disagreement clashes with their mutual attraction to each other.

Apple’s previous cinema releases were a mixed bag. Killers of the Flower Moon was an excellent crime epic, but their follow-up films, Napoleon and Argylle were mixed affairs, and all three films were box-office bombs. Fly Me to the Moon seems like it’s going to be an even bigger risk since it was a £100 million rom-com that’s relying on star power and grand sets. Many recent big-budget films have relied on existing intellectual properties and romantic comedies have had more success on streaming services.

Fly Me to the Moon can be best described as First Man meets Mad Men. First Man was a biopic about Neil Armstrong and focused on the Apollo 11 mission and treated the subject matter with a great amount of respect. It’s an unpopular opinion, but it was my favourite film made by Damien Chazelle. Fly Me to the Moon did have some of the same ideas as First Man like the space program becoming more unpopular with the public and showing the lingering shadow of the Apollo 1 disaster.

Mad Men was a period drama set in the world of 1960s advertising. It was set in a high-end world with high-end brands and Kelly would have filled in that world. She had powers of manipulation and persuasion and was a natural salesperson. Kelly was a confident and determined person who took advantage of people underestimating her. She brought glamour back to space exploration, was able to attract public interest in NASA, and showed she had a knack for lobbying.

Fly Me to the Moon embraced the ‘60s setting. The opening credits had a lot of flashes as they provided a montage about the space race and broader aspects of ‘60s history, like the Vietnam War and the election of Richard Nixon. It was a film that was filled with style and colour, especially due to Kelly and her profession. There were lots of split screen and time-lapse editing to help give Fly Me to the Moon a sense of energy. It was a jaunty film and the first half moved at a fast pace.

The film had a strong cast. Johannson must have been invested since she was a producer as well as a performer and she was great as the fast-talking executive who could think on her feet. Tatum has shown his comedy pedigree before in the Jump Street movies and The Lost City and he goes from a loveable dimwit to an all-American hunk with a brain but too much of an idealist. The pair had great chemistry together and some witty exchanges. They were aided by a screenplay filled with strong jokes. They even had a positive meet cute like the main couple in Anyone But You before they turned on each other.

There were also notable supporting players. Jim Rush played a prima donna commercial director who asks logical questions and Anna Garcia as Kelly’s assistant who’s looking for an attractive man and has a nice little character arc. It was great to see Ray Romano in a feature film.

The problem with Fly Me to the Moon was the screenplay because it tried to do too much. It was a film that had a run time of 132 minutes which was long for a breezy comedy. At the halfway point Fly Me to the Moon introduced the conspiracy plotline where Kelly gets pressed to record a fake Moon Landing. This gave Fly Me to the Moon the time bomb, or as the Nostalgia Critic described it, ‘the liar revealed trope.’ It also meant that the characters needed to find a way to stop the government scheme and face a new set of challenges. The idea was to give the second half some dramatic tension, but it made the film overly busy and gave it too many false endings.

Fly Me to the Moon was a fun throwback to swinging ‘60s vibes and setting. It aimed to be a light-hearted crowd-pleaser even if it did overburden itself at times.