October Sky Review
by Jamey Hughton (bhughton AT sk DOT sympatico DOT ca)June 1st, 1999
OCTOBER SKY (1999)
****1/2 (out of five stars)
A review by Jamey Hughton
Starring-Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Laura Dern and Chris Owen Director-Joe Johnston
Rated-PG
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Everyone I talked to loved Patch Adams, and yet the critics completely lambasted it. Here is a movie that I'm sure the movie-going public and professional critics can agree on. They're saying that October Sky is the first great movie of 1999, and they're right.
This is the true story of Homer Hickam (Jake Gyllenhaal), a young boy in a small West Virginia coal mining town who is obsessed with building a working rocket. His influence is the Russian satellite Sputnik, a landmark achievement that he sees pass, consequently, in the October night sky. His father (played by Chris Cooper), driven by generations of coal miners in the family, views Homer's rocket chemistry as nonsensical and wants him to follow in his footsteps. The only support Homer gets is from his friends and his teacher, Miss Riley (Laura Dern), who eagerly assists him as his dream unravels.
Joe Johnston manages to press all the right buttons that a director possibly could, turning this basic formula movie into an uplifting, heartwarming piece of modern day entertainment. It's absolutely no surprise that the movie is produced by the same people as Field of Dreams. It's that good.
October Sky could have easily failed if everything didn't click appropriately. The first mission was to get a believable actor to play Homer, the young real-life hero who now works at NASA. This is where the filmmakers struck gold. In casting newcomer Jake Gyllenhaal as the teenager brave enough to follow his dream, Johnston made the best decision of his career. Young Gyllenhaal is a sensational find, and the movie simply glows whenever he's on camera. This puts everything to rest, because he's in nearly every scene in the film.
Another wise move was to put Homer's rocky relationship with his father ahead of even the main story. Cooper has a familiar role and speaks familiar dialogue, but his situation is so believable that all signs of deja vu are quickly pushed aside. Laura Dern is also playing somewhat of a stock character. Her role may be the one weak spot the film has, but in the same sense she performs very well with the material she's given. Everyone involved deserves a pat on the back for making this movie.
There's truly never an uninvolving moment in this two-hour gem, which has far more than the designated amount of laughs and smiles needed to register. If you're looking for something entertaining on a Saturday afternoon, you couldn't do much better than seeing this. October Sky is the best movie Hollywood has presented so far this year.
More MOVIE VIEWS by Jamey Hughton
http://welcome.to/movieviews
Jamey Hughton was a 1999 Writing Finalist in the YTV Achievement Awards and writes a Published Weekly Column in The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon, Sk. Canada).
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
