PROJECT HAIL MARY-Pulls off Miracle-Made Me Cry Over a Rock Pile

Ryan Gosling's stellar performance in this sci-fi, apocalyptic space adventure is what made this film get off the ground.  If it weren't for Gosling's unassuming charm and acting chops this would have been a flop.  Andy Weir's novel "Project Hail Mary" was made into this blockbuster hit. Weir's previous novel, THE MARTIAN, was also made into a box office hit with Matt Damon.   In similar plots, Damon and Gosling are both alone for the majority of the movie.  Each must rely on their own intellect and wherewithal to survive stranded in outer space.  Gosling portrays Ryland Grace, a reluctant recruit marooned and the sole survivor on the spacecraft sent into the galaxy to safe all humanity from doom.  Both plots sound simple, and not unlike "Robinson Crusoe" who must survive on an isolated island.  Of course, there's a difference between surviving and thriving.  Whereas Crusoe was grateful when another man, Friday, finally arrived.  Ryland's extraterrestrial companion can be described as a resembling a pile of rocks.  This rock pile  possesses an incredible intelligence and benevolence which is astounding and ingratiating.  We first meet Ryland as an engaging science teacher to middle school students.  Ryland is waylaid outside class to be recruited into the space program.  A report he published years earlier while working as a molecular engineer predicted the doomsday scenario for which the world's greatest scientific minds now concur.  Ryland was unceremoniously fired at the time for his radical paper which is now drawing together the best international scientific minds.  It's drawing Ryland into an uncoveted spot on a one way spacecraft ride he refuses.  Drastic times call for drastic measures.  Ryland is dragged, drugged and put into a coma along with three other crew members for the selfless quest to solved the sun from dying out in less than two years.  Ryland awakens in his space capsule from an induced coma to discover he is the sole survivor on board.  The funeral Ryland gives his mates is fervent and and thoughtful.  The first half of the film feels tedious and drawn.  But, all is forgiven when Ryland connects with an alien spacecraft and its highly advanced inhabitant.  Was it the writing, the acting of Gosling or of "Rocky" that provides this hard to swallow plot with deserved pathos? I don't know.  I do know that I fell hard for the deep friendship that formed between the two.  With ET, you had an adorable extraterrestrial and cute kids.  In PROJECT HAIL MARY the long shot of landing a heartwarming, symbiotic relationship was between a rock and a hard place, yet it scored!