Fly Me To The Moon: Movie Review

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Woody Harrelson, Ray Romano, Anna Garcia, Jim Rash
Director: Greg Berlanti

The idea of a screwball comedy set around the Apollo 11 lunar landing is, in theory, not a bad one by half.

But Fly Me to The Moon's desire to keep things aloft seems more earthbound than in the stars, thanks largely to a story that feels paper thin and a male lead who isn't quite the right fit for proceedings.

Johansson is Kelly Jones, an advertising executive who is fast and loose with the truth and even faster and looser with her client pitches. When word of her talent of being able to spin things reaches the government, she's contacted by Harrelson's fedora-wearing Moe Berkus, she's asked to help NASA win the publicity war for hearts and minds for the space race.

Heading down to Florida, Kelly begins a flirtation with Tatum's Cole Davis at a diner, but when the pair realise they will be working together, walls go up as they battle to ensure a future for NASA. However, Berkus decides the US must be successful in the Apollo 11 mission, and proposes the filming of a fake moon landing...

Fly Me To The Moon had potential to soar, but despite Johansson's deft touch and the script's occasional flourishes, most of what emerges here feels like a mismatch of casting and a lack of anything that really commits to the central premise.

Chiefly Tatum feels miscast, and attempts at humour from Davis' relatively straight role fall disastrously flat - and even the chemistry between the pair feels slight rather than stellar. Johansson emerges as the film's MVP, giving her Kelly the kind of sparkle and antithesis of a Mad Men cameo that's needed throughout - chiefly due to continued script lapses for her character and a tonal zigzagging required by the story.

More successful is the somewhat cliched film director embodied by Community's Jim Rash who scores most of the movie's zingers - and last minute forays into screwball territory feel slight as a black cat invades the set of the fake moon landing.

The biggest problem with Fly Me To The Moon is that it just doesn't seem to be able to commit to one tone or another; meshing sincerity with romance, light comedy with absurdism doesn't serve it well.