The Astronaut Farmer (2007)

The Astronaut Farmer Is Predictable But Enjoyable

By Maestro  Aug 30, 2007

Pros: While the movie is predictable, the message about the importance of family is heartwarming. It makes a person want to find out if Farmer will actually get into orbit.

Cons: The predictability of the movie is the only downside. For the most part, the movie is predictable. The only unpredictable part of the movie comes in what would happen when Farmer actually launched.

The Astronaut Farmer is a movie not only for the family, but about the family. Billy Bob Thornton plays Charlie Farmer, a....well....a farmer who was at one time, an astronaut. He was forced to leave NASA for personal reasons, however so that his fam...ily would not lose their home. The problem here is that as a result of leaving NASA, he still dreams of going into space. This causes him to lead his family to nearly lose their home, due to the expense of his dream. His dream is eventually realized, but not without a lot of physical and emotional pain. This pain still brings Charlie and his family back together to achieve what becomes not only Charlie's dream, but also the dream of his family and even the citizens of his town. The people of the town all think Charlie is somewhat odd for his dream, yet they still secretly root for him to be able to make his dream happen. Once he gets into space, audiences see Charlie's dream suddenly go bad temporarily. While the movie is somewhat predictable, the acting of Thornton's co-star, Virginia Madsen, and cameos by the equally famous Bruce Willis and Tim Blake Nelson among others, made for an enjoyable movie. It may end up as a Saturday or Sunday night movie on one of the major networks somewhere down the line, but it is still a touching movie that is both for and about the importance of family. Read more Less