Review of The Astronaut Farmer (2007) by Heather B — 24 Feb 2008

A once aspiring astronaut, Charles Farmer (BILLY BOB THORNTON) had dreams of travelling into Earth's orbit. A family situation, caused him to leave the agency and now he's a farmer living with his mostly supportive wife Audie (VIRGINIA MADSEN) and their three children, Shepard (MAX THIERIOT), Sunshine (LOGAN POLISH) and Stanley (JASPER POLISH). Hal (BRUCE DERN), Audie's father (BRUCE DERN), also lives with them and is a curious encourgement to Farmer.

Charles can't get rid of the thought of outer space. He takes matters into his own hands by building his own rocket in his barn. His passion, puts some strain on his marriage and on his family finances.

The feds show up at his farm once they learn of Farmer's rocket building. They fear he is a potential terrorist. FAA Chairman Jacobson (J.K. SIMMONS), FBI Agents Killbourne (JON GRIES) and Mathis (MARK POLISH), and a host of others characters come to visit. A current astronaut (BRUCE WILLIS) shows up to convince Farmer the feds don't like his idea.

Farmer doesn't care what the Feds think and he contacts lawyer Kevin Munchak (TIM BLAKE NELSON). Munchal calls a friend and a media circus ensues. So with money running low, building family stress, Farmer must overcome various obstacles as he pursues his goal of going into space.

The movie is cute but formulaic so what develops comes as no surprise. You automatically know money's going to be an issue. There will be marital stress. The press will show up. The feds will try to shut everything down.

Even with all this, it's still possible with the right touch, the cast and crew can make the film an entertaining story. For the most part, they succeed, but barely and only if everything is taken with a huge obligatory suspension of disbelief. There are one too many plot holes.

It's a sort of fantasy piece but it should have come off as more believable and not take me out of the adventure to question how such things could happen. There was a little mix of humor and quirkiness that sometimes went deeper with thematic talk of the effects of paternal suicide, a family death, etc. Overall, it was "Field of Dreams" with rockets but it didn't work as well. Another movie that did this better was "Frequency".