‘Fly Me to the Moon’ movie review: Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum soar with this loony tune

A still from ‘Fly Me to the Moon’

The lyrics of Bob Dylan’s ‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’ is a glittering quilt of diamond-sharp phrases, including, “He not busy being born is busy dying,” “Money doesn’t talk, it swears,” and “Even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.”

Greg Berlanti’s Fly Me to the Moon, brings to mind other lines from the 1965 masterpiece, “Advertising signs they con/ You into thinking you’re the one/ That can do what’s never been done/ That can win what’s never been won/ Meantime life outside goes on/ All around you.”

While you might feel it is a stretch to set the screwball romantic comedy against the lyrics of a Nobel Laureate, it does work when you see Scarlett Johansson as Kelly Jones tip-tapping on her high heels in the corridors of power bedazzling the silly suits with one outrageous scam after another till she meets one that just might be too big even for her.

At the height of space race, in the 1960s, as the USSR zooms ahead, NASA is trying to make good on President Kennedy’s promise of putting a man on the moon before the decade is over. Apollo 11 is to be the first manned spaceflight to the moon. Headed by Cole Davis (Channing Tatum), it is a race against time. With the honeymoon period over and the war in Vietnam, the space programme is understaffed and underfunded.

A still from ‘Fly Me to the Moon’

That is when a Washington fixer, Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson) decides to hire Kelly to sell the moon to the world. Kelly and her assistant, Ruby (Anna Garcia) are soon on their way to Cape Canaveral to do just that.

When Cole says his people are too weird and too busy to give interviews, Kelly hires actors who can, including one for Cole, who she tells to “up the charisma!” A meal at a diner gives Kelly the bright idea to get the big corporates on the gravy train. When Cole is shocked at having to turn the project into a giant billboard in space, Kelly tells him some home truths and soon the astronauts Buzz Aldrin (Colin Woodell), Michael Collins (Christian Zuber) and Neil Armstrong (Nick Dillenburg) are photographed with Omega watches, with other product placements peppering the narrative.

All goes according to plan including schmoozing with senators, and a camera to record footage of the moon landing to be beamed live into every living room across the world. Moe wants one more thing from Kelly and that is a plan B — a fake moon landing in case the real one fails.

Despite serious reservations, Kelly gets the temperamental ad film director Lance (Jim Rash) to do the job. There is a lot of fun to be had with the fake moon-landing with Kelly even muttering she should “have got Kubrick” referencing the conspiracy theory of the 2001: A Space Odyssey director having filmed a fake moon landing.  

Johansson and Tatum brings their considerable talents to the table with Donald Elise Watkins and Noah Robbins as engineers on the project and Ray Romano as Cole’s best friend and second in command, Henry Smalls, giving pitch-perfect support. Harrelson is on another level as the mysterious Moe. Though long for a rom-com at over two hours, there is enough meat on Fly Me to the Moon to feel the time slip by smooth as the jazz that plays in the background. Incidentally Kelly’s suits and accessories are to die for, and there is a black cat called Mischief who far from being bad luck, conclusively proves what is real and what is fake at the opportune moment.

Fly Me to the Moon is currently running in theatres