The Astronaut's Wife (1999) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com Member: Online Film Critics Society
**1/2 out of four
"What happened during those two minutes?"
Starring Charlize Theron, Johnny Depp. Rated R.
In many ways, The Astronaut's Wife is a very decent Hollywood thriller. It is utterly compelling for most, if not all of its running time; intense and well acted, moments had me on the edge of my seat. So it is only in retrospect that I was able to discern its many prevalent inadequacies. As the story unspools the film seems to work but after it is over you realize that cerebrally The Astronaut's Wife did not begin to live up to its admittedly impressive visceral effect.
Jillian Armicaust's husband, Spencer (stoic Johnny Depp), is the respected commander of a space shuttle. On his latest mission there is an accident. As Spencer and his partner are trying to fix a satellite there is an explosion. Houston (we have a problem) loses contact with the two austronauts for two whole minutes. When communication is regained they are immediately brought back to Earth. Spencer seems fine but his partner has a massive stroke and dies.
Soon Charlize is pregnant with twins. It is then that she begins to notice strange things about her husband. Nothing apparent, but little things that are off. At first she pays no mind, and when a concerned, fired NASA official comes to her claiming that there was something very odd about those two minutes alone in space she shoos him off, in obvious denial. But then she realizes that something is very wrong and begins to suspect that there is something in those mysterious two minutes, in her husband and inside her that may not be of this earth.
As I ran the scenes over in my head after the movie I got the feeling that Ravich was afraid of getting caught on a plot contradiction and decides to prevent that by being as neutral as possible. He suggests things about the nature of the aliens but he never develops the concepts. He gives clues but he never provides specifics. Not only is this frustrating to the viewer, not only does it detract from the movie, but it's also a sign of laziness on the part of the writer.
Charlize Theron (The Devil's Advocate, Mighty Joe Young) is a magnificent actress, and she is terrific in The Astronaut's Wife. In a role that could have easily been played over-the-top B-movie style, Theron maintains her dignity throughout and delivers an intense, satisfying performance. Johnny Depp fares just as well. Towards the climax where it would have been easy, once again, to overact and make his character cheesy he remains calmly menacing; clearly a force to be reckoned with.
We never get to know Spencer before the change so it's hard for us to compare them, which is another thing detracting from the movie. How are we supposed to believe everyone who insists that there's something wrong with him when we don't know what he's like when there isn't anything wrong? That's a fundamental problem; a flaw in the film's very structure and one that would have been corrected had anyone involved in the making of this film used his common sense.
Despite its many detriments, The Astronaut's Wife is still a moderately satisfying affair. It's the kind of film that I generally tend to like; the kind where quiet intensity rather than cheap thrills is what engages the audience. This particular film is often quite effective as far as adrenaline is concerned but it quickly falls apart if you try and actually think about what just went on.
I'm not sure if I can come out and recommend The Astronaut's Wife to you, but if you do decide to see it I doubt you'll feel like you wasted your money. I didn't like this movie but I can't say that it disappointed me either. It's certainly not bad; it's just a shame that it isn't better. ©1999 Eugene Novikov ‰
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