ASTRONAUT FARMER,THE: DVD

SYNOPSIS:
When Charles Farmer (Billy Bob Thornton) is forced to leave NASA to save his family farm in Texas, his lifelong ambition of becoming an astronaut seems doomed. But Farmer enlists his wife Audie (Virginia Madsen) and his family to build his own rocket so he can launch himself into space. The authorities are adamant that he doesn't - and Charlie Farmer is adamant that he does.

Review by Andrew L. Urban:
An endearing and entertaining aspirational movie straight from the heart of the American dream: you can do or be anything you set your heart on. President or astronaut, it's your right. All ya gotta do is dream. And here's Charlie Farmer, risking all, dragging his family into financial hardship, just to satisfy his unfulfilled ambition to fly into space. No, he's not selfish and stubborn; he's the paragon of American determination. His wife, to her credit, finally erupts in fury at his selfishness - and Virgina Madsen is good at this.

But of course, for Charlie, it's a measure of his manhood and his self; if he gives it up now, he'll feel like a wimp. And Billy Bob Thornton is good at that. But of course, that's
Not the whole story, because this is an aspirational movie in which the foolhardy dreamer is the real hero. And his wife has the wisdom to make another speech which changes everything. As does her dad's death, and his modest but healthy estate helps with the finances.

Tim Blake Nelson is terrific as Farmer's lawyer, and the two Polish children are adorable as the Farmer kids, the cinematography is superb and the music, a little cloying at times, is nonetheless suitable. Good value family entertainment in an American kinda way.

Published January 31, 2008