132 min | PG-13 | July 12, 2024 | Sony Pictures
Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum make a romantic comedy about faking the moon landing. The premise is fun. The execution is uneven. The two leads carry it through the rough patches.
Kelly Jones is a marketing genius hired by the government to fix NASA’s public image in the lead-up to Apollo 11. Cole Davis is the launch director who cares about getting the mission right and resents the publicity machine invading his workspace. They clash. They flirt. Then a White House operative orders Kelly to stage a fake moon landing as a backup in case the real mission fails. The film wants to be a screwball comedy and a space-race drama and a conspiracy thriller. It is too many things for one movie.
Scarlett Johansson plays Kelly with rapid-fire charm and a backstory that the film reveals in pieces. She is fast and funny and Johansson makes the character feel specific even when the script lets her down. Channing Tatum plays Cole with square-jawed sincerity. He is a man who believes in the mission and does not understand why belief is not enough. The chemistry between them is pleasant rather than electric. Woody Harrelson plays the government handler Moe Berkus with menacing affability. He is the most interesting character in the film because his motivations are the most ambiguous.
Greg Berlanti directs with a visual warmth that suits the 1960s setting. The NASA sequences have period texture. The Florida locations look great. The production design nails the era. The problem is tonal. The romantic comedy scenes and the fake-moon-landing scenes feel like they belong in different films. The shift from light banter to Cold War paranoia creates a whiplash that the script by Rose Gilroy does not smooth over. The film is too long at two hours and twelve minutes.
There is a tighter, funnier version of this film that commits fully to the screwball comedy. There is also a sharper, darker version that commits fully to the conspiracy thriller. This version splits the difference and lands in a pleasant middle ground that never fully satisfies either impulse. Johansson and Tatum are enjoyable to watch. The film around them needed another draft.