Review: The Astronaut Farmer

2.5
That's all I really have to say about this movie, it's not that great but it isn't terrible. There are some of those raise your hair moments that get you thinking about your life and your situation. This is a movie about dreamers. It plays to the situation many adults find themselves in. We all have dreams and hopes when we are little kids, but as adults it seems those dreams get pushed to the side and you just go about living and taking care of other people. Well why not dream with a family? For one, Charles Farmer (Billy Bob Thornton) puts his family hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt chasing his crazy dream of building and flying his own space rocket around the earth.
Farmer is a former Air Force/Astronaut, who, when his father killed himself, left the space program and never got his chance to be in space. So he goes about building his own rocket using his scientific knowledge and money that is never really explained. While the whole town thinks he's crazy, and the FBI comes to investigate a possible threat, his wife and family show little stress. When Audrey Farmer (Virginia Madsen), his wife starts to show a little doubt she is quickly talked down. Then her father shows up, does nothing to further the plot, and doesn't really ever talk. When he dies there is no real emotion shown by the cast, it isn't a sad moment but for a brief scene showing Madsen crying over his body. Farmer decides to put an end to it all, and have his big moment, having not told anyone. The result is little more spectacular than if you or I tried to get to space.
Mrs. Farmer feels releived to have this all over with but they still have to deal with the foreclosure of their home, so she cashes in her fathers mysterious fortune (seriously, guy happened to have enough to pay off the debts?) At the last second she changes her mind and decides that her family needs this dream as much as her husband, so they use the money to rebuild and get to space.
Ultimately he's successful, and the audience can begin to dream big themselves, they just have to overlook some glaring scientific miscalculations and outright lies by the studio. ie. While coming back into the atmosphere Farmer deploys his parachute... ONE parachute, and lands really rather nicely in an open Texas field.
Ignore the implausibilities and just focus on the dream oriented part of the film, let it take you into your head and find a dream you once had. Maybe you wanted to visit the land your ancestors traveled from. Maybe you always wanted to own a Harley. Let this movie remind you that it's okay to dream as an adult, it's still okay to want and wish big things for yourself. (don't take the financial advice from this movie, if your dream is too big, dream smaller, it's not worth starving your family is it?) See it, just don't pay for it...