Several months ago, my friend Dan had the opportunity to attend a premiere for the Polish brothers' The Astronaut Farmer.
He sat in an aisle seat in a packed theater where Billy Bob Thornton
walked down to the front, passing within inches of Dan. Which would have
been really exciting if he were a particular fan of Thornton or had
been especially looking forward to the movie. As he wasn't and hadn't,
the evening made for good conversation fodder but wasn't too memorable
otherwise. The movie itself, he assured me, didn't have much to
recommend it.
But as the Paula Abdul of movie reviewing, I
disregarded his advice and put this PG-rated feel-good movie in my
Netflix queue. Having finally watched it, I can see where Dan is coming
from. There are a lot of very hokey elements to this film. But that
doesn't stop it from being a heartwarming family film that encourages
viewers not to give up on their dreams.
Thornton plays Charles
Farmer, a devoted family man who abandoned his career with NASA in
order to save the farm previously owned by his father. Though he'd
switched gears officially, his sights remained on the skies, and over
the years he managed to construct a full-sized rocket, incurring
hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt in the process. As the movie
begins, he's decided he's just about ready to launch his creation,
particularly when all that money he borrowed comes back to haunt him.
But along with all the other obstacles standing in the way of his
vision, he has to get official permission from NASA to proceed, which
may be the toughest part of all.
Thornton does a great job
with the role, providing just the right mix of grim determination,
affection and humor. He is aided primarily by Virginia Madsen in the
role of his long-suffering wife Audrey; Max Thieriot as his stoic
teenage son Shepherd; and the adorable Jasper and Logan Polish as his
giggly young daughters Stanley and Sunshine. Bruce Dern provides a
fatherly presence as Audrey's dad Hal, and Tim Blake Nelson's Kevin
Munchak is one of the few folks outside the family who's in Charles'
corner. Bruce Willis' appearance as his old NASA chum, Col. Doug
Masterson, is particularly enjoyable, and it caught me by surprise
because I don't recall having seen him in any of the previews, while Jon
Gries and co-writer Mark Polish are hilarious as a pair of FBI agents
sent to spy on Charles.
I have no complaints about the acting,
and on the whole the film is well done. It's shamelessly warm and
fuzzy; it could have been a Hallmark movie. But that doesn't bother me.
What does bother me are the plot holes. Like the fact that it seems to
have taken Charles years to build his rocket, but when an accident
occurs, a replacement rocket takes only weeks. Like when the family
comes into some money, it doesn't seem like it's enough to cover even
half their debts, but it allows them to be completely paid off and have
enough money leftover for a new rocket. Like there being no
repercussions for launching a rocket improperly and sending it whizzing
through town, nearly taking a dozen people out in the process. The plot
is outlandish enough that it detracted slightly from my enjoyment of the
film, particularly since my dad was sitting next to me commenting on
every absurd thing that happened.
That said, I would still recommend the movie, especially to saps like me or to anyone interested in space travel. The Astronaut Farmer encourages us to cling to our dreams, even if they're as unwieldy as a rocket the size of a barn.
No comments:
Post a Comment