The Astronaut’s Wife

December 9, 2004

Rated: R Runtime: 110 min Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

This is advertised as a sci-fi thriller. OK, I’ll give it that much. I wasn’t expecting much from this movie, but it actually surprised me. This was a pretty darn good movie…until the end. I was prepared to give it 4 stars, but the ending REALLY pissed me off!

The acting is respectable. Johnny Depp was better than I thought capable with his role and Ms. Theron was quite believable. Whoever the director is understands cinematography and the fine art of subtlety. The best thing about the movie is its ability to convey a change of mood to you without thrusting it in your face.

Depp plays Spencer Armacost, an astronaut up in orbit to fix a broken satellite. While floating outside the shuttle, all contact is lost with him and another astronaut for 2 minutes. The official story is that an explosion on the satellite caused the outage and the men were recovered and safely brought back to earth.

The truth, however, is that Spencer Armacost has somehow been taken over by an alien intelligence. Does he behave differently? No. Does he change his habits, manner of speaking, or in any way make you suspicious? No. The director, instead, uses subtleties to make you uneasy with the recently returned astronaut. Odd camera angles and effects are placed very nicely into the flow of the movie.

So what’s the problem with the movie? Simple. It never answers the question of “why?”. Other similar movies usually make it quite clear that the alien is bent on taking over the earth, enslaving the human race, and/or stripping the earth of its resources. Here, we know *what* the alien is trying to do, but there is no obvious reason for it. It won’t accomplish any of the above things, but it *might* get him some power or money here on earth and I find it hard to believe that an alien would go to the effort of interstellar travel just to make a buck.

If you see this movie, be prepared for a good movie that will ultimately annoy the hell out of you.

Posted by Alex | Filed Under 2 Stars, Action, Charlize Theron, Johnny Depp, R, Theatrical