Rocket Man Charles Farmer Dreams Big

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.

Unbreakable Breaks Shymalan's Winning Streak

After that rather ominous title, I should clarify that I did not think Unbreakable was a bad movie. Strange, certainly, but I can deal with that. No, it's just that Shymalan's second blockbuster paled in comparison to the utterly mesmerizing The Sixth Sense. Bruce Willis once again stars, this time as security guard David Dunn, who is a decent guy but certainly not as likable as the soft-hearted psychologist Malcolm Crowe. He, too, suffers from marital problems, but they do not arise from over-dedication to his job, though absence does play into it. In his first scene we watch him slyly slip his wedding ring into his pocket in order to flirt with the foxy lady sitting next to him on the train.

Moments later, the trains crashes, and David walks away unscathed, the only passenger to survive the wreck. This miraculous event catches the eye of Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), a comic book fanatic with brittle bone disease. He believes that Dunn may be a super-hero, and he summons the security guard to his store to discuss his theory. Unfortunately, Dunn's impressionable son (Spencer Treat Clark), who worships his father, believes Elijah's theory and becomes determined to prove it.

Meanwhile, Dunn's wife, a nearly unrecognizable Robin Wright Penn (she looks so much...older than she did in Princess Bride and Forrest Gump), is finding it increasingly hard to talk to her husband and becomes very worried when Elijah's super-hero talk starts rubbing off on her son. As in The Sixth Sense, it's the kid that finally gets Bruce's character to see himself as he really is, but I'm afraid that Clark was a little too grating for me. He came off as rather pathetic and whiny, although much of that probably had to do with the dialogue he was given.

The most memorably bad scene in this movie, in my mind, occurs at the kitchen table, when David's son informs him that he has a gun and that he intends to shoot him to prove that he is invincible. What follows is supposed to be tense and suspenseful but comes out rather comical as the parents plead for the weapon. "We don't shoot friends," Mom admonishes, to which he protests, "I'll only shoot him once!"

Still, the movie has a rather intriguing premise, and it's fun to watch Dunn uncover the layers of his past in order to accept his present. The movie almost ends on a feel-good note with father and son sharing their incredible secret, but Shymalan is apparently a big fan of the twist ending. This one is sure to surprise, but while the end of The Sixth Sense left me with a peaceful, fulfilled sort of feeling, this ending was disappointing and unsettling.

As with The Sixth Sense, I think a Horror classification is inappropriate. There's nothing too scary here, and there are only a couple violent scenes. Perhaps if The Sixth Sense had not blown me away like it did, I would not have set the same expectations for this movie. I doubted I would like it as much, especially with the absence of Osment, but I was intrigued to see what Shymalan would come up with next. It was a decent movie, a good movie even, but not a great movie, and while I don't regret seeing it in the theater, I wouldn't spend another $5 to see it again.

Riveting

When I first saw the previews for The Sixth Sense, it freaked me out. The commercials made it look like a terrifying horror flick, and I was sure that I couldn't handle it. However, I went to the movies one night with one of my more courageous peers, and I decided to give the movie a shot. After all, it was only PG-13, and it starred a kid. How bad could it be? I figured I'd suffer through it.

I needn't have worried. After a couple of minutes, I was drawn into Haley's riveting performance and Bruce's low-key display of sensitivity. The story was simple incredible, and the characters, mainly Cole Sear, his mom, and Dr. Malcolm Crowe, displayed an impressive depth. Cole was especially fascinating. The first time we hear him speak, he is huddling in a church with his toy soldiers murmuring a Latin prayer. Strange things seem to happen around him, and he tells Dr. Crowe that what he wants more than anything is "not to be scared anymore."

Dr. Crowe is chilled by the similarity between Cole and Vincent, a child who he misdiagnosed several years before. Vincent broke into Dr. Crowe's house one day and shot him before killing himself, and the doctor hasn't been the same since. He works feverishly to figure out where he went wrong with Vincent and help Cole. He becomes so engrossed in Cole's case that he never has time to talk to his wife anymore.

Meanwhile, Cole suffers in silence as he is haunted by visions of dead people. When he breaks the secret to Dr. Crowe -- after a frightening incident which landed him in the hospital -- Malcolm assumes that Cole has been hallucinating. But then how to explain those scratches all over the boy's body? When we see through Cole's eyes, we are presented with a gruesome line of ghosts who have died horribly. Be prepared for a couple jumps, maybe a shriek or two.

I came to "The Sixth Sense" expecting a horror movie, and I left feeling what was almost a spiritual experience. Aside from some gory graphics, this movie is a touching drama that will give you a lot to think about. When you leave the theater, you may thin twice about whether you believe in ghosts. I was especially touched by the fact that in the end, Cole simply had to listen to the ghosts and help them. They were just normal people who had died with unresolved issues.

Then there was the tender relationship between Cole and his mother, and her pain over the not-so-recent loss of her mother. Watch for Cole's comment at the dinner table: "Sometimes you miss something, and you think it's lost, but it really just got moved." While his mother doesn't catch his meaning at the time, it is one of the most meaningful lines in the whole movie.

Haley is brilliant in this movie, creating an enduring character more convincingly than many adults could. He deserves an Oscar for that performance. Toni Colette and Bruce Willis are also remarkable. Come to the movie prepared to laugh, to scream, and to cry. And if the end doesn't twist your head around 180 degrees, I don't know what will.