The Astronaut Farmer April 24th, 2010
Originally Written 02/03/08
I had a lot of problems with The Astronaut Farmer. I could’ve cut it some slack if it was more of a modern fantasy or fairy tale, but it had too many real and serious moments to be taken as such. It’s one thing to follow your dreams, but when you put your family at serious risk, then it’s just selfish.
I wanted to bitch slap Billy Bob Thornton’s character several times in the movie. His wife was also too blandly and blindly supportive of him for most of the film. Second, there’s a deus ex machina which occurs to wipe out all of the family’s financial trouble, and glosses over that source of strife. So overall I found the mood and theme of the story very unbelievable and aggravating and more than a little troubling.