Fly Me To The Moon - a betrayal of romance

The Scarlett Johansson/Channing Tatum vehicle Fly Me to the Moon is a romance (some call it a romcom) about the Apollo XI launch director and a PR executive tasked with drumming up support for the flagging project.

It's a disappointment.

Johansson and Tatum are perfectly fine in their roles. Johansson is quite a bit better than perfectly fine, but then again, she is Scarlett Johansson. She consistently meets very high expectations.

The rest of the cast is a mostly forgettable ensemble in forgettable roles, some of which exist mostly - or perhaps only - to make the movie eligible for awards.

The problem with the movie is its fundamental lack of faith in the relationship between Johansson's and Tatum's characters (Kelly Jones and Cole Davis, respectively). Every good story needs tension, decisions, and consequences. This is typically the main obstacle to success for any movie heavy on romance. How do you create conflict between two characters, both of whom need to be likable?

Fly Me to the Moon tries to finesse the problem by injecting a storyline about a fake fake moon landing, the details of which are needlessly disclosed to Jones just to advance the plot. The whole thing is uninteresting, in some aspects preposterous, resolved through slapstick developments, and really just tedious.

In addition, Johansson's character is burdened with an overloaded Mad Man-esque background story, a contrivance to lend credence to the bolted-on side-show story ("a contrivance to lend credence" is a an embarrassingly pompous phrasing. I'm tired. I apologize. I'll try to do better next time).

According to IMDB, the movie is written by Rose Gilroy based on a story by Keenan Flynn and Bill Kirstein. According to their respective IMDB profiles none of them have much writing experience. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe the problem is that they are professionals, I'm a viewer, and they have a completely different idea of what movies should be like.

Should you watch Fly Me to the Moon? Definitely, if you're a fan of Johansson. If you're not it's kind of a take it or leave it. But, if you're not a fan of Johansson, what is your general malfunction?