Fly Me to the Moon: A Rom-Com with an Almost-Faked Moonshot and a Moral About Gullibility

By Liz Braun

Rating: B-plus

Fly Me to the Moon is a rom-com set around the 1969 U.S. moon landing. It seems to be about a lot of things —  a kinder, gentler America, early feminism, truth in advertising, an impartial media. But above all, it’s a pleasant few hours at the movies with charismatic actors Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum.

Actually, make that two hours and 12 minutes, which is a tad too long.

Johansson stars as Kelly, a con artist turned advertising executive, a sweetly conniving marketing wizard who could convince anyone of anything.  She’s enlisted by an agent of the White House (Woody Harrelson) to rekindle America’s interest in the Space Race after the tragedy of Apollo 1. 

Scarlett Johansson tutors launch director Channing Tatum on space PR.

Once in Florida at the space centre, our girl Kelly butts heads with Cole Davis (Tatum), the launch director, who has his hands full trying to steer the program and a potential moon landing. After they meet cute at a diner and flirt a little, they run into each other at work. He’s annoyed by her interference, but she continues to attract money and positive attention to NASA. ‘

Eventually Cole is impressed by her efforts. She must woo the press, convince various politicians to support NASA and get corporate sponsors on board; Kelly even drums up Apollo program sponsored merch, from peanut butter to Omega watches (which is why every North American baby boomer extant still knows what Tang is).

Then the White House asks Kelly to create a fake moon landing, just in case anything goes wrong. Her top-secret task is to create the Apollo 11 moon landing right here on Earth, on a soundstage, in case the mission fails in space. As it will be televised and the whole world will be watching, nothing can go wrong.

The story then moves into the real vs. the fake moon landings, with some very funny bits about the fake — much of the humour courtesy of Jim Rash as a daft filmmaker — and some serious bits about the actual event. 

The media is represented in two very different ways: America’s beloved Walter Cronkite commenting on the moon landing and appearing on everyone’s TV set (which is all real footage) vs. TV interviewer Chuck Meadows (Peter Jacobson) in an unpleasant “gotcha” interview with Cole Davis about the deaths of three astronauts on Apollo 1. Extrapolate at will.

Set as it is at a time of global social upheaval and great change, Fly Me to the Moon is a kind of modern creationist story, with Adam and Eve taking their usual places and Eve once again eating fruit from the tree of knowledge — in this case, Kelly’s understanding that no one ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American public.

Richard Nixon is in the White House, the thin edge of the wedge, and Ronald Reagan takes over just seven years later, so we all know how the story ends.

Fly Me to the Moon is, overall, charming and funny. The music by Daniel Pemberton) is terrific. If you intend to look beneath the shiny surface, watch for lovely cameos from  Colin Jost, DP Dariusz Wolski and others.

Fly Me to the Moon. Directed by Greg Berlanti. Written by Rose Gilroy, Keenan Flynn and Bill Kirstein. Starring Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Woody Harrelson, Ray Romano, Jim Rash, Anna Garcia. In theatres Friday July 12.