Post by Return of the Thin Olive Duke on Jan 3, 2016 3:18:16 GMT -5
Dir. Michael Polish
Premiered February 23, 2007
The Astronaut Farmer looks and feels a lot like one of Disney’s more earnest live-action films from the 1990s, like Iron Will. Primo cheese. Leave it to Warner Brothers to be a decade behind the curve.
Billy Bob Thornton plays Charlie Farmer, a beleaguered Texas rancher, engineer, and former astronaut-in-training who, for quite a while, has been building a functional rocket ship. This is immediately laughed off by his friends and neighbors (but strangely not his wife or children) as a ridiculous fantasy. Faced with the possibility of foreclosure and with his mental health seriously in question, he’s suddenly put under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration, making him into a minor celebrity and attracting the attention of a real astronaut (Bruce Willis).
I was just starting to like this movie, and then shit got weird. First, the FAA has decided to shut him down and at one point JK Simmons’ administrator threatens to kill him if he tries to launch anyway, though they just stall the approval process. Charlie tries to launch anyway, but botches the takeoff and nearly kills himself. Ready to give it all up for the sake of his family, he suddenly comes into an unexpected break and tries once more.
Yeah, this movie almost got me to like it, and I like its sense of wonder and optimism, but it all feels very empty. It has a lot of stupid stuff, and a lot of weird, questionable incidentals, and it mostly falls flat. I wouldn’t recommend it, but it isn’t painful to watch. A lot of talented actors were in it.
Additional Notes:
- Sign this was made in 2007: Constant lens flares. There’s also a fair amount of Bush-era political paranoia; the Patriot Act is namedropped, and astronaut Bruce Willis claims that the FAA doesn’t want a successful launch to embarrass the government. At one point, I think the movie insinuates that the US government assassinated Martin Luther King. Charlie’s disdain for the state of science education is a nice touch, though.
- While describing this movie in the shoutbox, someone (I think Celebith ) said “So is this movie literally about a guy who couldn’t be bothered to file the right forms.” In fact he did, but the Government wanted to enfoce its monopoly on space travel. Considering SpaceX had its first launch a year after this came out, that’s fucking ridiculous.
- Thornton looks weird in this movie, like he had an overzealous eyebrow pluck immediately before shooting.
- There’s a minor character who exists to make innuendos about the rocket. That’s literally all she does.
Next time: The Number 23
