The Astronaut Farmer, if not for a little middle slippage and tiny missed opportunities, could have been one of the best family movies in ages. As it stands it’s a worthy movie, a solid movie, but not a contact high inducer movie. I did some interviews with all the heavies here if you want a little more info on the motivations and ideas behind what has to be the most expertly titled movie of the year.
Or is it? Someone adroitly (adeptly?) pointed out to me that given the title, technically the guy should be harvesting astronauts, like a potato farmer. So really the movie is all about a farmer that’s also an astronaut which segues me nicely into the plot. Billy Bob Thornton plays Charles Farmer (oh wait, the title is a pun, egh), a rocket scientist out in small town America who has nursed the dream of launching himself into space for 15 years. Unlike how you or I nurse our dreams (of Scotch) Farmer goes about building himself a rocket ship based on publicly available V2 design. This draws the ire of the U.S. government and the F.A.A. which forms one of the central conflicts of the movie. The marketing taglines would go something to the effect of: Will he get to launch? Can he launch? Will he survive? Can he keep his family together? You get the idea.
What is done very well here is the set-up. It seems logical, given how the movie proceeds that a guy could build a rocket ship and the government would react in such a manner. It is a credit to the Polish brothers that within the framework of the film’s reality everything works swimmingly. I can get pretty hung up on internal logic problems in film so it was nice to see things make sense. Whether or not any of this is realistic in real life doesn’t concern me, though everyone involved at the junket felt pretty strongly that it was.
The thing that prevents this from becoming this year’s Cinderella Man or V for Vendetta (fantastic February releases) is the pacing after the movie gets started. Pacing is a bit vague and insider but what I’m saying is that in some point around minute 70 or so things start feeling odd. Elements are thrown in but not really developed, or thrown in and dealt with in about 30 seconds when they deserved more exposition. It might be the screenplay, it might be the editing, but somewhere along the line they lost the heartbeat of the tale. A strong finish saves the film from the scrapheap and makes it a slight recommendation.
The other element I would have liked is a sense of mystery a la The Natural. This might be a personal hang-up of mine but I like a movie that’s wondrous, that believes in magic. In some way I guess I’m giving a little ding out for the film being too grounded. Shooting for the stars, though it sounds silly to say, would have been the route to impress me.
It looks like I’ve spent too much time complaining about a film I pretty much liked so here is what I found enjoyment in: The rocket itself is very cool and you’ll be forced to smile at how damn impressive the silver beast is. Bruce Willis, in a small cameo, captured my reaction to a tee. Once you see the rocket you’re on board and cheering hard for Billy Bob. Astronaut Farmer is also very solid on the family front. There aren’t any broadside cliches where someone screams for the “Oscar” scene. Everything is dealt with in a mature, straightforward, entertaining manner. This is a real life family with occasional problems, but that’s not the focal point of the film. In that sense Astronaut Farmer portrays something both realistic and idealistic, a difficult feat.
Final judgment: if you’re part of a family, a father or mother, this is a no-brainer. It’s PG and it moves along. It has a good message. If you’re on a date night I’d say this is much more mixed. You may want a little more sex, violence, or comedy for your dollar. It’s worth seeing if you want to feel good, but it won’t blow your mind. I guess in that sense the film is nowhere near as big as the dream it’s based upon.
