The Astronaut's Wife (1999)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Rand Ravich

Writer (WGA):

Rand Ravich (written by)

Release Date:

27 August 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

How well do you know the one you love?

Plot:

A pair of shuttle astronauts leave their spacecraft to repair a satellite. There's an explosion. NASA loses contact for two minutes...

Plot Keywords:

Astronaut | Mission | Possession | Apostrophe In Title | Punctuation In Title

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Johnny Depp	...	Commander Spencer Armacost
Charlize Theron	...	Jillian Armacost
Joe Morton	...	Sherman Reese, NASA Representative
Clea DuVall	...	Nan
Donna Murphy	...	Natalie Streck
Nick Cassavetes	...	Capt. Alex Streck
Samantha Eggar	...	Dr. Patraba
Gary Grubbs	...	NASA Director
Blair Brown	...	Shelly McLaren
Tom Noonan	...	Jackson McLaren
Tom O'Brien	...	Allen Dodge
Lucy Lin	...	Shelly Carter
Michael Crider	...	Pat Elliott
Jacob Stein	...	Calvin, 2nd Grade Student
Timothy Wicker	...	Wide Eyed Kid #1

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, language and a strong scene of sexuality.

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Portugal:M/16 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Finland:K-16 | Netherlands:12 (TV rating) | Netherlands:16 | Singapore:M18 (cut) (re-rating) | Singapore:PG (cut) | South Korea:18 | South Korea:15 (cable rating) | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | France:U | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Iceland:14 (original rating) | Iceland:16 (video rating) | Spain:13 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:18 | USA:R (certificate #36008) | Philippines:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Camarillo Airport - 555 Airport Way, Camarillo, California, USA

Company:

New Line Cinema

Trivia:

In this film as well as in The Devil's Advocate (1997), Charlize Theron's character begins in Florida, then moves to New York (where bad things happen to her).

Goofs:

Factual errors: All NASA shuttle astronauts live and work in the vicinity of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, many of them in Clear Lake, a Houston suburb. Yet in the film, Jillian teaches school in Florida, where she and Armacost clearly live. Astronauts only go to Florida for launches.

Quotes:

Spencer Armacost: I don't believe I could take much more of this honey.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Film Geek (2005)

Soundtrack:

Four Beat Cha Cha Cha

Nice patient delivery and good ending even if it leaves unsatisfactory questions

Spencer Armacost and Alex Streck are on a mission in orbit to repair a sataleitte when NASA loses touch with them for two minutes. After this two minutes the pair are recovered and return to earth. However Alex dies of heart failure soon after return and his wife, Natalie, kills herself. Soon Spencer's wife Jillian falls pregnant with twins and they move to New York for Spencer to take up a job with a military aerospace firm. However Jillian begins to have doubts that Spencer hasn't been changed by his experience – doubts that are backed up by NASA scientist Sherman Reese.

Playing like a cross between Rosemary's Baby and Contact, this film attracted me to it on the strength that Johnny Depp was in the lead. The plot is interesting as I quite enjoy sci-fi when it is done well, although it maybe doesn't deliver everything you'd expect in terms of thrills. It has a nice slow patient build up throughout the film, we are invited to be unsure if Jillian is losing it or if she's catching on to the reality of her situation. A great performance by Joe Morton helps this uncertainty as he plays a NASA rep who may be unhinged as much as he is informed.

The director uses various tricks to help keep the film feeling tight. Shots flash quickly around the illustrate the panic and confusion in Jillian's head, the camera spins around some key confrontations to make the movement draw out pace etc, but for the most part he has a lowkey tension playing constantly which, for me, worked better than big shocks and scares. The `truth' is revealed a little too early, leaving the film with it's wad blown with still 20 minutes to go, and the climatic confrontation would have worked better with a rant that explains everything in terms of `why' and `who' – but the actual conclusion is pretty cool and maybe it's better we're left wondering.

Depp is OK in the lead but not his best work. He only has to walk round looking menacing and talking with the Texan accent and that's it! Theron is much better and she portrays Jillian so well that the audience aren't sure if she's crazy or not. Her gradual descent is well done and helped by the director. Morton is excellent in what amounts to little more than a cameo and the rest of the cast are pretty good.

Overall this is not a perfect film and is really a bit of a hybrid of genres, but it works pretty well. The slow build up of tension works well, even if it bails out before it should. The ending may be slightly unsatisfying but there's no denying it is a brave attempt. I enjoyed it even if I felt like a bigger ending was in order.