If Scarlett Johansson as a Don Draper-level ad executive wrapped in a Joan Holloway sheath dress and in a NASA screwball rom-com opposite Channing Tatum floats your spaceflight, then “ Fly Me to the Moon ” hits the target square on the head for blandly reassuring, disposable throwback fare. And to the tune of a reported $100 million budget, it’s a rare studio comedy from an original script that’s not based on anything else — unless you’re counting Apollo 11, the first-ever successful man-on-the-moon landing led by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. But Greg Berlanti’s space race comedy puts an alternative orbital spin on American history: What if said moon landing was an elaborate hoax, and what Americans saw on all three major broadcast networks in 1969 was actually staged inside NASA’s 562-feet-tall Vehicle Assembly Building, with nothing but a crew of unaccomplished nonactors, some rock formations, and a replica of the Apollo Lunar Module? And what if the mastermind behind it all were a career con artist, here played by Johansson? Zippy at first with the charisma and verve of a Doris Day/Rock Hudson movie, before it way outstretches its welcome across multiple encores and a 132-minute running time, “Fly Me to the Moon” has the patina of a straight-to-streaming movie tossed into theaters due to a backend deal or to appease filmmakers.
Seemingly, that’s the journey Berlanti’s peppy vapor of a rom-com simulation has taken, with a theatrical release incomi.