Christopher Winterbauer’s upcoming set “Moonshot” is built around a familiar and hard-to-resist premise, most commonly found in sitcoms but with roots in goofy 1930s comedies: a man and a women who don’t get along must pretend to be romantically involved for the purpose of an elaborate ruse, the advancement of which gradually brings them closer together until they fall in love for real.
The man is Walt (Cole Sprouse), a candid, accident-prone barista who longs to visit Mars, and the woman is Sophie (Lana Condor), an anxious doctoral student. candidate en route to Mars itself. When Walt boards Sophie’s space shuttle, he assumes the identity of her longtime boyfriend Calvin (Mason Gooding) and manages to trick her into the deception. The trip to the red planet lasts a month. Walt and Sophie must spend it sharing quarters, maintaining amorous appearances, and (of course) exchanging the kind of witty banter and increasingly lustful stares that, in a romantic comedy, are the basis of any budding relationship.
Romance unfolds as always in these kinds of films, with the interstellar setting showing little innovation. Its good. It’s a robust and versatile trope, no less appealing for being predictable, and with the right balance of flirtatious antagonism and latent sexual tension, the payoff is certainly satisfying. The charged, teasing dynamic of Sprouse and Condor — Sprouse the awkward doofus with racy charisma, Condor the irritable perfectionist begrudgingly charmed by him — brings out their natural chemistry. Sprouse plays it a little loose, sometimes veering from endearing to wacky. But Condor is spot-on, and Winterbauer directs with a light, playful touch, giving the film an agile, vibrant energy of sexiness.
Moon shot
Rated PG-13 for mild language and sexual innuendo. Duration: 1h44. Watch on HBO Max.
