One of the biggest conspiracy theories in human history is the assumption that the first moon landing never happened Instead, the US space flight with Neil Armstrong in 1969 is said to have been staged. It is also often claimed that master director Stanley Kubrick was behind the images that were shown live on television at the time.
In the cinema you can now watch To the Moon, a film that Conspiracy theory as a charming RomCom and is loaded with star charisma thanks to Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum.
Moon landing completely fake? That’s what To the Moon is about
In the story of the film by director Greg Berlanti, Tatum plays Cole Davis, who works for NASA as head of the rocket mission. His job is to successfully stage the first moon landing for the USA in competition with the Soviet Union. One day, Johansson is infiltrated into the agency as marketing genius Kelly Jones in order to exploit the moon trip as commercially as possible.
Cole and Kelly initially clash before slowly developing stronger feelings for each other. But in the background, the advertising luminary soon finds herself playing a much riskier game, as she is supposed to be a Staging a fake moon landingwhich is broadcast on television at the crucial moment instead of the real mission.
Watch a German To the Moon trailer here:
To the Moon – Trailer (German) HD
To the Moon scores as a classic RomCom with irresistible star power
The staging and planned broadcast of a fake moon landing plays no role at all in Berlanti’s film for quite a while. Instead, the film lives from the irresistible chemistry that Johansson and Tatum exude together in their roles.
To the Moon, especially in the first half, comes across as a classic romcom, the kind that was shown much more regularly in cinemas 20 or 30 years ago. When the character of the Black Widow actress uses clever maneuvers or deceptions to wrap her counterpart around her finger, Johansson’s Kelly Jones almost seems like a superhero again – but this time from the advertising industry.
Tatum, on the other hand, plays his Cole Davis as a down-to-earth, charismatic leader whose serious exterior always breaks open when he meets Jones. When he sees her for the first time in a diner and doesn’t yet know who he is dealing with, he falls for her within seconds.
Sony
To the Moon
Johansson is able to constantly turn the tables in her role and lets Tatum’s character get into trouble more than once. The way the two stars pass the ball to each other, get involved in fierce confrontations and of course there is a lot of chemistry between them, reminiscent of the kind of star-driven filmswhich is not often used in cinema these days.
The RomCom also entertains with a fast-paced mix of facts and fiction
But To the Moon is not just a really entertaining romcom, in which more dramatic undertones also shine through now and then. At the latest when Kelly Jones is commissioned by the shady government agent Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson in best Woody Harrelson mode) to fake the moon landing, Berlanti’s film develops more and more into a fast-paced race of its own kind.
Then it is no longer a question of outdoing the Soviet Union with the first man on the moon, but of pitting the real mission against simulated studio recordings. This leads to an amusing duel in which real backgrounds of the moon landing juggled with completely fictitious elements become.
To the Moon is now in cinemas. The film will then be available on the streaming service Apple TV+. A date has not yet been set.