The Astronaut Farmer Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)February 20th, 2007
THE ASTRONAUT FARMER
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2007 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
THE ASTRONAUT FARMER is a dreamy fairytale for all ages about a man with a ridiculously improbable, big dream. To make sure we don't miss the point of this sweet -- and bittersweet -- fable, the man creates a larger-than-life rocket ship which he names "The Dreamer."
In a time in which too many movies forget the importance of inviting cinematography, the camerawork by M. David Mullen has a magical mood, filled with golden, autumnal lighting and warmly lit interiors.
This is another film by the Polish brothers, Michael and Mark. As they like to do, Michael directs while they both contribute to the script. They also like to appear in their movies. This time Mark plays part of a pair of FBI twins sent in to investigate a rancher named Farmer who, reportedly, is about to launch himself into outer space with a rocket that he cobbled together from rocket ship junkyards. Jon Gries, made to look like Mark's twin, plays the other FBI agent.
The Polish brothers aren't always successful. I found their lethargic NORTHFORK barely watchable; while their TWIN FALLS IDAHO was a fascinating experiment that worked more often than not. The latter picture stars the brothers as a pair of Siamese twins, which are now called conjoined twins.
Billy Bob Thornton stars as Charles Farmer, an almost ex-astronaut. An aerospace engineer, Farmer had to drop out of the program after his father committed suicide. Now a rancher, he still keeps his dream alive, even if it is literally bankrupting his entire family. Virginia Madsen (SIDEWAYS) plays his wife and Max Thieriot, Jasper Polish and Logan Polish play his children. Rarely has a family been so supportive of their father's vast aspirations as Farmer's family. Only when he takes the kids out of school -- "for five weeks tops" -- does his wife ever protest much, and then only briefly. Making it all sounds quite reasonable, Farmer explains his logic to his son's teacher, when removing him from the classroom. "You're just teaching him how to read history," Farmer explains with a gentle passion. "I'm going to teach him how to make history."
The conflict in the story comes from a series of Washington bureaucrats, including J.K. Simmons (the newspaper editor in the SPIDER-MAN series) as the regulation-obsessed head of the FCC. Farmer could have flown way under the radar of the feds were it not for his need to purchase 10,000 gallons of rocket fuel. Needless to say, that puts him squarely in the cross-hairs of Homeland Security and every other agency whose purpose is the country's protection.
As the Las Vegas odds makers give Farmer 60:1 against and television crews monitor his every move, the answer to what happens next may just surprise you.
Yes, it's a bit slow and its target audience sometimes seems to be completely unclear, but it's a heart-warming film that's hard not to like. And why would you even want to try to resist a movie with this much natural born charm?
THE ASTRONAUT FARMER runs 1:41. It is rated PG for "thematic material, peril and language" and would be acceptable for all ages.
My niece Liana, age 10, thought the film was funny and gave it ****. Her brother William, age 12, liked it a lot as well, giving it **** too and commenting that he liked the ending best.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, February 23, 2007. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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