REVIEWS: Love Story and Project Hail Mary

Love Story

I was initially apprehensive about Love Story, the biopic series from producer Ryan Murphy about the romance of John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. While alive, Kennedy and Bessette became tabloid fodder, only to become idealized in death, so I was wary of the show coming off cheesy or maudlin.

My interest in the show was admittedly partly driven by a measure of admiration for Kennedy. In addition to being close in age to Kennedy, and as a political and news junkie and history buff, I enjoyed and subscribed to Kennedy’s George magazine. (In fact, I still have every issue saved somewhere.)

Fortunately, the show successfully avoids most of the missteps I feared, offering a fairly grounded telling of the couple’s romance, wedding and marriage, focusing on what it was like to be inside the eye of a celebrity storm and, for Bessette, facing the twin challenges of becoming a mega-celebrity and a Kennedy. That said, I don’t doubt that much of the story has been fictionalized and structured for dramatic effect (see my mention of actress Daryl Hannah below), but I nevertheless thought the show approached the subject with intelligence and captured a measure of emotional truth that suited the characters, if not the real life players. I found it to be a surprisingly engaging production that faithfully captured the 1990s with attention to detail and featured some very perceptive writing and great scenes.

Ultimately, what elevates the production are the winning performances of the lead actors who portray John-John and Carolyn (Paul Anthony Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon), as well as some very good writing. They make their counterparts relatable while also capturing their appeal and attractiveness (not an easy accomplishment!)

They’re ably supported by the other players as well, including Naomi Watts as Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Grace Gummer as Caroline Kennedy, Jessica Harper as Ethel Kennedy, and Alessandro Nivola as Calvin Klein. Special recognition needs to go to Dree Hemingway. She is both frighteningly and hilariously convincing as former Kennedy girlfriend Daryl Hannah, who is set up as a bete noire of sorts to Bessette—so much so that poor Hannah was compelled to release a statement that she’d never used cocaine, pressured anyone into marriage, desecrated a family heirloom, or crashed a wake (see the show if you want to know what the fuss is about!)

Anyway, we were pleasantly surprised and greatly enjoyed the series.

Project Hail Mary

Following the successful adaptation of Andy Weir’s book, The Martian, into film (a book I fortunately read well before the film even went into production), comes Project Hail Mary from directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and writer Drew Goddard, who also wrote adapted The Martian for the screen.

It’s a winning, uplifting space and science fiction film about cooperation and friendship between differing worlds and cultures, a welcome message in today’s fractured world. Anchoring the film is Ryan Gosling, as science teacher and reluctant astronaut Ryland Grace, in a role tailor made for the actor that takes advantage of both his acting and comedic chops.

Grace has been sent on a mission into the far reaches of space to find a way to battle a micro organism dubbed Astrophage that is threatening earth’s sun and, indeed, nearly every star in the known universe. He eventually joins forces with an alien being he meets when he arrives at a distant galaxy who, it turns out, is on a similar mission.

The two soon become a team and eventually develop a genuine bond. The depth of this bond and friendship is tested when circumstances arise when each must decide whether to put their lives and the mission itself on the line to come to the other’s aid. The film is the perfect message for our modern age, serving as a much needed counter to the division and tribalism that’s been sadly too prevalent in our world today.