The Astronaut's Wife (1999)

A pair of shuttle astronauts leave their spacecraft to repair a satellite. There's an explosion. NASA loses contact for two minutes, but the both are rescued and safely returned to Earth. ... See full summary »

Director:

Rand Ravich

Writer:

Rand Ravich

Stars:

Johnny Depp, Charlize Theron, Joe Morton

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Johnny Depp	...	Commander Spencer Armacost
Charlize Theron	...	Jillian Armacost
Joe Morton	...	Sherman Reese, NASA Representative
Clea DuVall	...	Nan
Donna Murphy	...	Natalie Streck
Nick Cassavetes	...	Capt. Alex Streck
Samantha Eggar	...	Dr. Patraba
Gary Grubbs	...	NASA Director
Blair Brown	...	Shelly McLaren
Tom Noonan	...	Jackson McLaren
Tom O'Brien	...	Allen Dodge
Lucy Lin	...	Shelly Carter
Michael Crider	...	Pat Elliott
Jacob Stein	...	Calvin, 2nd Grade Student
Timothy Wicker	...	Wide Eyed Kid #1

Storyline

A pair of shuttle astronauts leave their spacecraft to repair a satellite. There's an explosion. NASA loses contact for two minutes, but the both are rescued and safely returned to Earth. Eventually it becomes evident that neither of the astronauts is quite the same.

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Plot Keywords:

astronaut | mission | paranoia | depression | sex in public | 

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Taglines:

How well do you know the one you love?

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Genres:

Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, language and a strong scene of sexuality

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 August 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Mulher do Astronauta

Filming Locations:

One 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10003

Box Office

Budget:

$75,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$4,027,003 (USA) (27 August 1999)

Gross:

SGD 451,241 (Singapore) (10 December 1999)

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Line Cinema, Mad Chance

Technical Specs

Runtime:

109 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Nick Cassavetes plays Capt. Streck; Nick's father, John Cassavetes starred in Rosemary's Baby which bares many similarities to this film.

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Goofs

When Spencer scares Jillian in the bathroom, she drops the abortion pills she was holding and they fall far away from each other. After Spencer slaps her, the pills are closer together.

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Quotes

Spencer Armacost: I couldn't sleep. I was just listenin' to some music.

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Connections

References 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

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Soundtracks

"My Way"
Written by Paul Anka, Gilles Thibault, Jacques Revaux, Claude François
Performed by Sid Vicious

User Reviews

An insult

There is scene in this movie in which a stroke is medically referred to as "a severe insult to the brain". A line which describes this entire film far better than any reviewer possibly could.

Obviously influenced by The X-Files, the first thing that strikes the viewer is the invasive use of tense mood music. If the Astronaut's Wife is opening a fridge there is a string quartet behind anxiously heralding a danger which subsequently doesn't exist. In a TV show like The X-Files it's a trick used to great affect because it's stylistic and the shows exhibit a degree of wit and imagination that relieve us from the pointless tension. Neither of those saving graces feature in this film.

The characters are poorly drawn, we're constantly told Spencer (The Astronaut) has changed since his last mission into space. We need to be told this so often because we're deprived of witnessing very much of his prior personality. And throughout the story Jillian (The Wife) never functions as anything more than a paranoid wreck, even before she suspects that something is really wrong.

Fans of Depp and Theron will be as disappointed as the rest of us. Johnny's flyboy astronaut is utterly out of place since we all know true spacemen are stiff and boring scientists, yet this guy is exhuberant like the barnstorming 1950's test pilots that never really existed. God only knows what hewas thinking with this part. And Charlize, throughout she never lifts above the catatonic. Literally, and I mean this folks, there is nothing more to her performance than the bags under her eyes and hers is the lead character, our heroine for crying out loud! That's beyond appalling.

As a thriller there is never a comfort break in this pretentious sci-fi flick that asks us to care for a character it's impossible engage with. It's non-stop, we're expected to be in the edge of our seat with every single scene, and if the plot doesn't supply the drama a 'bus' (that's the Hollywood term for a false shock) will. They are countless, and soon annoying. The same can be said for the way The Wife is mysteriously at the front of every crowd during key moments of action, which is one of the other cheap dramatic tricks overused by a really really bad director.

Until recently writer/director Rand Ravich hadn't been in charge of a film since this 1999 failure, you'll know why.

Fifteen years ago this was the kind of film that made a frustrated Quentin Tarantino decide he really needed to begin making his own.

It's diabolical.