Great Film: The Astronaut's Wife
Visually enticing and well acted, but poorly executes good ideas. ** out of ****.
THE ASTRONAUT'S WIFE / (1999) **
Johnny Depp plays a NASA astronaut named Spencer Armacost who, while on a
space mission, losses contact with Earth for two minutes. He and his
colleague, Alex Streck (Nick Cassavetes), return home to their spouses,
Jillian Armacost (Charlize Theron) and Natalie Streck (Donna Murphy).
Bizarre episodes begin to occur with Alex, leaving Jillian suspicious of her
husband's condition. As her husband's strange behavior increases, Jillian
begins to question what really happened in those 120 seconds.
"The Astronaut's Wife," written and directed by Rand Ravich, poorly executes
good ideas. We have imaginative and potentially suspenseful ideas with this
film's concepts behind such happenings in two minutes as Spencer and Alex
are in galactic boundaries. The gradual increase in Spencer's unusual
behavior depicts effective suspense-but thorough introduction of the
characters does not take place, nor do we witness the key events in which
the rest of the move hinges upon. Consequently, "The Astronaut's Wife" does
not work.
The film's first act is full of incidences, characters, and subplots.
Clearly too many things happen too early in the story. Within the first
thirty minutes the production attempts to develop two separate
relationships, shows us the atmosphere of a teacher's workplace, something
bizarre transpires out of earth's orbit, a decision is made to resign and
move to New York, a suicide takes place, a character mysteriously dies, and
probably more. I just couldn't follow the plot.
I liked the eerie, supernatural overtones located throughout the production.
The film is smart to reveal the right amounts of information at the precise
time. There is also a certain style to "The Astronaut's Wife," containing an
elusive mood, a weirdly intriguing design, and some tense and
unusual
camera angles. The movie becomes more interesting as we reach the
closing.
Charlize Theron has been in a lot of movies lately, but "The Astronaut's
Wife" is her first leading role. She seems to have come out of left field in
1997 with the comedy "Trail and Error." Afterwards, she contributed larger
performances in "The Devil's Advocate," "Celebrity," "Mighty Joe Young," and
most recently "The Cider House Rules," and "Reindeer Games." Her role in
"The Astronaut's Wife" is a little more complex than her past credits,
excluding her enticing and believable acting job in "The Devil's Advocate."
She presents the traumatized Jillian Armacost with the perfect blend of zest
and tragic confusion.
Depp and Theron conjure a chemistry-rich couple. The movie very clearly
takes Jillian's point of view instead of allowing us to know mysteries with
Spencer. This stays consistent and focused, but sometimes leaves us
pondering about unexplained events.
"The Astronaut's Wife" builds for an awe-inducing conclusion through
revealing and intriguing dialogue and an omnipresent undertone. The film
suggests a form of extraterrestrial is behind the deaths of several
characters as well as the strange behavior of Spencer, but we learn the
truth only in the end. Call "The Astronaut's Wife" an unusual "The X Files"
episode featuring a cliffhanger conclusion and a supernatural climax. The
movie must have appeared really exciting on script. If only more capable
filmmakers would have claimed this production we may have had a real winner.
Instead audiences feel disappointment and failure, potential is wasted and
originality is underscored
Cast
- Sherman Reese, NASA Representative played by Joe Morton
- Natalie Streck played by Donna Murphy
- Commander Spencer Armacost played by Johnny Depp
- Jillian Armacost played by Charlize Theron
- Capt. Alex Streck played by Nick Cassavetes
- Jackson McLaren played by Tom Noonan
- Shelly McLaren played by Blair Brown
