THE ASTRONAUT'S WIFE Reviewed by Jamie Peck
Rating: * (out of four) New Line / 1:46 / 1999 / R (language, violence, clothed sex) Cast: Charlize Theron; Johnny Depp; Joe Morton; Clea DuVall; Donna Murphy; Nick Cassavetes; Blair Brown Director: Rand Ravich Screenplay: Rand Ravich
In "The Astronaut's Wife," Charlize Theron plays a young woman with a nervous demeanor , pixie-hairdo and demon spawn unwittingly growing in her belly. If only her name wasn't Jillian, the makers of this embarrassing bit of sci-fi shlock could have come up with a far more appropriate title: "Rosemary's Species." What a shame it is to see such a gifted actress as Theron - Oscar-worthy in "The Devil's Advocate" - struggle with the lamest rip-off of a screendom classic in recent memory.
OK, maybe "The Astronaut's Wife" deviates from "Rosemary's Baby" turf for its set-up, which finds our heroine terrorized not by Satan's minions but her possessed husband (Johnny Depp), a shuttle pilot whose mission mishap leaves him, um, a changed man. Predictably, he and the missus get it on in a sequence best described as unpleasant, his evil seed impregnating her with twins and realizing that great "Bowfinger" line about "alien love." Theron's "Advocate" character faced a similar dilemma, the horror there resonating strongly. "Astronaut" provides only artificial anxiety.
Last year's equally noodle-headed "Species II" spun a similar premise about the breeding habits of an extraterrestrial on earth, but at least that movie more or less knew it was garbage. "The Astronaut's Wife" is grave and humor-free, passing its increasingly silly story off as full-fledged serious, right down to an ambiguous finale that isn't even going to satisfy those who've stayed with it thus far. Here's a hint: It involves lots of water, electrical equipment, a special effect from "The Abyss" and the tots who doubled up as Adam Sandler's co-star in "Big Daddy." Draw your own conclusions.
Director/writer Rand Ravich coats the proceedings in dynamic sights masterminded by legendary "E.T." cinematographer Allen Daviau, but too often favors the film's visual presentation over the story he's trying to tell. This bodes horribly for each dramatic development, like the surfacing of a suspicious NASA official ("Speed"'s Joe Morton) to instigate Jill's slow and stupid comprehension of the truth. His hyper-erratic behavior is probably supposed to give Wife a paranoid edge. Instead, he adds to the phoniness.
Theron and Depp are certainly beyond this junk and will get other chances to prove themselves this fall - she as part of an imposing ensemble case in the John Irving adaptation "Cider House Rules," he in the lead of Tim Burton's eagerly-awaited "Sleepy Hollow." Undeserving of such talent, "The Astronaut's Wife" manages to be derivative, dull and uninvolving despite its seemingly ripe potential for unintentional laughs. In space, no one can hear you scream. But in a movie theatre, everyone can hear you snore.
© 1999 Jamie Peck E-mail: jpeck1@gl.umbc.edu Visit The Reel Deal Online: http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~jpeck1/ "The best possible argument for including [a shot of Bruce] Willis' genitals would have been that the movie, after all, contains everything else." -Roger Ebert on "Color of Night"
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