‘The Adam Project:’ Ryan Reynolds Leads Strong Cast in Fun Throwback Pic

The production minds at Netflix clearly hold a massive affinity for nostalgia. Well, nostalgia for cinema from the 1980s and early 1990s. Think Stranger Things, arguably their most broadly popular drama series, which warmly hugs the most memorable sci-fi films from that era. Their Fear Street trilogy also smartly served up more period (and how it pains me to call the 1980s and 1990s a period) genre thrills. Now add Shawn Levy’s (Stranger Things, Free Guy) The Adam Project to that ever-growing roster of thankfully fun throwback entertainment, marrying elements of such 1980s classics as E.T., Flight of the Navigator, Back To the Future, and even hints of Peggy Sue Got Married.

The Adam Project stars Ryan Reynolds as Adam Reed, a future pilot who flies through a wormhole to travel into the past. In the past, he teams up with his younger self (newcomer Walker Scobell) to right some wrongs that have negatively shaped the future. The script apparently kicked around Hollywood for a while, nearly going into production in 2012 with Tom Cruise. Thankfully, things sometimes work out for the best, and the project comes to Netflix with Reynolds instead.

And Ryan Reynolds, as he did with Free Guy, makes this material work against all odds.

Sure, director Shawn Levy uses his knack for balancing emotional content with visual effects, a skill honed of course on Stranger Things, but Reynolds brings a much-needed sense of levity to The Adam Project. Without his wise-cracking persona, the film would suffocate under the weight of an intensively sci-fi heavy plot. You tend not to question the logistics or impacts of time travel because Reynolds distracts you with a joke or sarcastic pun.

As with the surprise hit Free Guy, not every actor could undertake this material and sell it so well. Everything he says seems accompanied by a hidden wink, a knowing nod to the silliness of it all. But trust in Ryan Reynolds. The audience doesn’t necessary need to fully subscribe to everything in the film because he does.

The emotional beats in the film are also accentuated by Jennifer Garner, as younger Adam’s mother, and Mark Ruffalo, as Adam’s absent father. Strong actors will find the truth behind any script, no matter how coated in sci-fi tropes it is. Garner, in particular, reminds us here of how good she can be at just being an incredibly real person on camera. She’s underused, of course, but her presence is key to the film’s overall emotional arc. As good as he is, Ruffalo’s role sometimes falls prey to the sillier aspects of the film’s time-travel plot. Still, he has a fantastic late-film sequence that provides an honest, tear-jerking emotional beat.

If The Adam Project has a flaw, then it’s that it must eventually provide closure to the time-travel narrative. Personally, I would have been totally fine watching Reynolds relive his childhood alongside his younger self. I suspect he could have mined hours of comic gold out of this, given his penchant for off-key humor. But The Adam Project eventually wears thin in a VFX-heavy final confrontation that isn’t nearly as fun as the film’s world building.

Still, come to The Adam Project for Ryan Reynolds. You’ll quickly realize this is his world, and we’re all lucky to be guests in it.

The Adam Project drops Friday, March 11, on Netflix.