Fly Me to the Moon (2024)
Directed by: Greg Berlanti
Premise: A New York City marketing expert (Scarlett Johansson) is hired by NASA to gin up the public’s enthusiasm for the Apollo program. Her style and ethics conflict with the mission flight director (Channing Tatum).
What Works: Fly Me to the Moon has a few interesting ideas. The central conflict is really one of integrity versus necessity. As depicted in the film, NASA’s Apollo program struggled to justify its expense and the filmmakers imagine a slick New York City marketing expert massaging the truth to sell the program to the public and politicians. It’s a relevant and interesting conflict; science and other intellectual pursuits often have to find ways to justify themselves to those holding the purse strings. But the noble lie gets bigger, culminating in a plan to fake the moon landing. The tension between the story’s ethical imperatives is paralleled by the relationship between marketer Kelly Jones and NASA flight director Cole Davis. The two have an antagonistic relationship but there is also a romantic chemistry between actors Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum which serves to dramatize the tension between these people and their values. The filmmakers do a good job dramatizing the intense pressure NASA was under to put a man on the moon as well as the political stakes of the Apollo program and the physical danger of space travel.
What Doesn’t: Fly Me to the Moon is complete fiction. The character of Kelly Jones is a fabrication. NASA did have a publicity department and they did have tie in promotions with various products but this was done in-house. The Apollo 11 flight director was Eugene Kranz, not the fictional character played by Channing Tatum in the film. The faking of the moon landing is a longstanding conspiracy theory and the filmmakers have fun with that urban myth. Fly Me to the Moon takes a lot of liberties with the truth but so do a lot of movies based on true events, especially those set in the distant past, and it’s unfair to criticize the movie for that. However, what the filmmakers are trying to say about integrity and noble lies gets muddled. The faked moon landing is a natural outgrowth of Kelly’s marketing efforts but it’s depicted as one lie too far. The filmmakers don’t reconcile the difference; they don’t even seem aware that the tension exits. Fly Me to the Moon suffers from some questionable visuals. A few shots appear to be composites (with the actors probably shot against a green screen) and these images look fake; the actors and the setting don’t appear to be in the same location.
Bottom Line: Fly Me to the Moon is an entertaining if slight work of speculative fiction. It should not be taken as history and the filmmakers don’t follow their ideas to a conclusion but it is light fun and there is an interesting dramatization of philosophical tensions that gives the movie a touch of substance.
Episode: #1006 (July 28, 2024)