The Astronaut's Wife

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

This film's plot and story could easily be distilled into a wonderful 22-minute script for a Twilight Zone episode. Or perhaps a short sci-fi B movie from the 50s.

I thought the acting was fine, and the production values were superb. But my overall impression is that there were a lot of plot complications but not really much of a plot.

As noted by other comments, there were some good ideas lurking in this script, but the major deficiency is that those ideas were not developed and presented in an entertaining way, so as to keep the audience's attention.

I saw this film in a cinema when it was first released 25 years ago. I watched it again tonight, in case there was something I missed back then. On this second viewing, I find I didn't miss a lot.

Two minutes of lost communication between a space shuttle and home. What went on? The astronaut involved returns, but his wife finds he is not quite the same... This film can be considered a serious blight on the resumes of Charlize Theron and Johnny Depp. I found the film a terrible mess,mostly because a slightly interesting premise, (which had tricked me into watching) disintegrated into adisjointed, incoherent plot and the final blow, horrific special effects. The cast seems to struggle with the script and the scenes of violence and sex are awful and unnecessary. Even the combined talents of Theron and Depp cannot save this bombshell from outer space.

Up to about ninety percent through the film, The Astronaut's seems to be on course to being something special. Leads Depp and Theron are very convincing in their roles and they are backed by a very competent supporting cast led by the always reliable Joe Morton (T2, Speed, Bounce, Paycheck, Smallville). The special effects and cinematography are well done and the pacing and building of suspense entice the viewer to unravel the mystery along with the protagonist. Unfortunately the revelation doesn't quite live up to the buildup leaving the viewer more than a little dissatisfied. Despite the letdown I still recommend this movie on the strength of the performances and on the fact that is a rare hybrid of the science fiction and thriller genres. 7/10.

An astronaut has some sort of weird experience in space. He comes back acting funny. Does anyone notice? Not until he goes off the deep end. How will it all end?

Just because this is one-dimensional and predictable does not mean you can not still say "stay in the car." And you do not think having twins is spooky? Rosemary's Baby never grew up to be a pilot. Yeah, and such common names as Spencer Armacost; whatever happened to Igor or Jeffery Dhalmer? They are put in a quiet space, so you have time to think about what happened (or did not happen) and you call it dull. Do you think that they would intentionally make a bad movie?

Interestingly enough the actors, including Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron, for better or worse have made some memorable movies. So, it is interesting to speculate how they were lured into this particular film.

If you can believe the premise of this film then the next film to watch is Shatner in Space (2021),