A scene from ‘Fly Me to the Moon’
The lyrics to Bob Dylan’s song ‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’ are a dazzling encasement of diamond-sharp phrases, including, “He ain’t busy being born, he’s busy dying,” “Money don’t talk, swear,” and “Even the president of the United States has to stand naked sometimes.”
Fly me to the moon
Director: Greg Berlanti
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Jim Rash, Ray Romano, Woody Harrelson
Story: As the space race heats up, a marketing expert is hired to steer NASA’s moon landing project in the right direction
Duration: 132 minutes
Greg Berlanti Fly me to the moonOne recalls other lines from the 1965 masterpiece, “Advertisements give hints; they make you think that you are the one / Who can do what has never been done / Who can win what has never been won / Meanwhile outside life goes on / All around you.”
While you might think it’s a bit far-fetched to base a romantic comedy on the songs of a Nobel Prize winner, it works when you watch Scarlett Johansson as Kelley Jones slink through the corridors of power in high heels wearing a silly suit and pulling off one outrageous scandal after another, until she comes across a scandal that might be too big even for her.
At the height of the space race in the 1960s, as the USSR was gaining ground, NASA was trying to fulfill President Kennedy’s promise to put a man on the moon before the decade was over. Apollo 11 would be the first manned spacecraft to land on the moon. Led by Cole Davis (Channing Tatum), it’s a race against time. With the honeymoon period over and the war in Vietnam raging, the space program is understaffed and underfunded.
A scene from ‘Fly Me to the Moon’
Then a Washington fixer, Moe Burkus (Woody Harrelson), decides to hire Kelly to sell the moon to the world. Kelly and his assistant, Ruby (Ana Garcia), soon leave for Cape Canaveral to do just that.
When Cole says his people are too weird and too busy to give interviews, Kelly hires actors who can do that, including an actor for Cole, whom she says will “boost the charisma!” While dining at a restaurant, Kelly comes up with the brilliant idea of profiting off of big companies. When Cole is surprised that he has to turn the project into a giant billboard in space, Kelly gives him some home truths and soon astronauts Buzz Aldrin (Colin Woodell), Michael Collins (Christian Zuber) and Neil Armstrong (Nick Dillenburg) are photographed with Omega watches, with other product placements also woven into the story.
Everything goes according to plan, including interacting with senators and setting up a camera to record footage of the moon landing, which will be shown live in every living room around the world. Moe wants one more thing from Kelly and that is Plan B – a fake moon landing in case the real landing fails.
Despite serious objections, Kelly hires irascible ad film director Lance (Jim Rash) to do the job. Much fun is had with the fake moon-landing, with Kelly even saying he “should have gotten hold of Kubrick” which references the conspiracy theory. 2001: A Space Odyssey The director filmed a fake moon landing.
Johansson and Tatum show off their talents, with Donald Ellis Watkins and Noah Robbins playing engineers on the project, and Ray Romano as Cole’s best friend and second-in-command Henry Smalls, providing superb support. Harrelson is on another level as the mysterious Moe. Though it’s pretty long for a romantic comedy at over two hours, there’s plenty to take away. Fly me to the moon Feel the time pass by as effortlessly as the jazz playing in the background. Incidentally, Kelly’s suits and accessories are a sight to behold, and there’s a black cat named Mischief who is far from being unlucky, proving at the right time what is real and what is fake.
Fly Me to the Moon is in theaters now
