***SPOILERS, I s'pose***
I saw a screening of Michael Polish's The Astronaut Farmer today. I was expecting a well-crafted, moving drama... what a letdown it was!
The soaring music indicates I was supposed to feel touched and inspired by what transpired. Instead, I thought the phony, hollow offering was depressing and unfortunate. The protagonist, Charles Farmer, is hard to root for. It's explained he was, as a young man, an ace pilot who would've eventually found himself in a seat on a NASA space shuttle. But his father commits suicide and he's forced to leave the military to save the family ranch... boo hoo, right? So, now older and more matu... nah, just older, he's become a blue-collar hero planning to launch into space from his rural town, with his fifteen-year-old son as his mission controller. I was supposed to adore the man, cheer when he succeeds and boo when he meets an obstacle. But, instead, he began to terrify me. In one scene, an obviously long-suffering suit is forced to deny Farmer a loan to purchase wildly expensive jet fuel from an underground dealer. Farmer shatters his window in a fit of rage. Later, we learn he's completely disregarded his family's financial well-being in his mad pursuit of becoming Neil Armstrong-with-a-plow. I saw this as a disillusioned, depressed man completely dissatisfied with where he's ended up (he obviously doesn't have too much respect for his family, despite the incessant scenes of them sharing laugh after laugh during supper) who falsely believes he can bury his sorrow and remove the chip from his shoulder by achieving the impossible... floating about in space for a day or two. This is a sad man in desperate need of redemption and a mental health professional, not a trip off the planet. Michael Polish sets him up as Atticus Finch, but he's truly Allie Fox, Harrison Ford's character in The Mosquito Coast.
Yes, yes, it's not completely bad. Virginia Madsen does her very best in the dull role of the dutiful wife who believes so much in her madman husband, and Bruce Willis has a decent glorified cameo. Also, the cinematography is Oscar-worthy. I often considered tuning out the pathetic main character and just absorbing the beautiful imagery. But, no... I stayed with Mr. Farmer, through every bad and unethical decision until the very end. Maybe I was supposed to smile and clap when his dream is finally realized. Instead, I just groaned and hoped maybe he would decide to stay in space for the sake of the poor human race.
D+.
