Charming, funny and old-fashioned, FLY ME TO THE MOON is a lightweight comedy bolstered by its superb recreation of the 1960's. Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum deliver easy laughs and plenty of heart, with deft support from Woody Harrelson and Ray Romano.
It's the mid sixties and NASA is suffering from funding fatigue, recent setbacks and the Vietnam War all over the front page.
Woody shows up as Moe Berkus, a shady figure who reports to President Nixon, but instantly conveys that he doesn't tell Tricky Dick everything.
Moe is on the trail of NYC advertising whiz Kelly Jones (Johansson). The opening scenes are a comic "Mad Men" Kelly-style as we watch her in action. She's slick, fast and you never see her coming.
Moe wants her to take over marketing for NASA to quickly create a new image that will secure pending funding for the Apollo 11 Moon Mission.
Arriving in a tornado of energy and take-charge energy, Kelly and her assistant Ruby (terrific big screen newcomer Anna Garcia) descend on NASA and immediately clash with Mission Director Cole Davis (Tatum). He doesn't have time for ANYONE's crap and Kelly's tornado of misdirection meets its match in Cole's stubborn defiance of anything not mission critical.
Romano has already proven to us that he can play drama (The Irishman, FX's Fargo) and he's at his best here, landing huge laughs and tenderness as Henry Smalls, Cole's right hand mentor.
The film's greatest visual asset are the superb special effects and set decoration that take you back to the Apollo 11 launch and Moon Landing in a way that's palpable for those of us old enough to remember it as a "live" event. It's a stunning recreation of a time and place, with Director Greg Berlanti showing a deft hand in his transition from the small to big screen as his camera swoops all over the NASA complex. The film was shot at the Kennedy Space Center.
For those conspiracy minded viewers, the film throws in a hilarious side plot with Kelly's demanding TV commercial Director Lance Vespertine (Jim Rash from "The Way Way Back") thinking he's Kubrick while hurling insults in every direction. It's a deft and funny parody of the rumors that Stanley Kubrick staged the moon landing. Vespertine is no Stanley but his delivery of the line "My Armstong is a whiny little bitch" is just one of many flawless line readings by the fearless Rash.
As the film nears the moon landing and all the subplots collide, the tone shifts from it's first half 1930's Hepburn/Tracy rapid-fire dialogue screwball comedy vibe to something much more dramatically heavy, but it's a smooth launch from one to the other.
If you're looking for a serious drama about the moon landing, check out Damien Chazelle's criminally under appreciated First Man (2018). FLY ME TO THE MOON is a lot lighter, sometimes so light it threatens to blow away, but it's fun, great to look at and enjoyable from start to finish.
Tatum and Johansson are both pros at elevating material. Here they don't elevate it, they blast it out of the atmosphere. Jump into the time machine and take a trip back to the late 60's, you're in good hands. I'll give it a feather weight but laugh filled B-.
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