Astronaut Farmer has a successful launch

By Kylie Jane Wakefield
Collegian Editor
February 21, 2007

The Astronaut Farmer is as sugary-sweet as the Lucky Charms cereal each character so generously consumes throughout the film. Starring Billy Bob Thornton and Virginia Madsen, this Polish brothers family flick is heartwarming, humble and, most of all, meaningful.

Thornton plays Charles Farmer, a man who is obsessed with space exploration but, due to his father’s untimely death, was never able to complete his astronaut training. He wears a space suit around his small Texan town and while gathering cattle on his farm, which gains criticism from his neighbors. Farmer has spent his family’s fortune building a rocket in his barn, which he hopes to someday launch. The town folk tell him to get realistic, to stop dreaming and to face the facts: someday everybody has to grow up.

But Farmer just ignores them and keeps on building, with the utmost support from his loving wife, Audie (Madsen); her father, Hal (Bruce Dern); his son, Shepard (Max Thieriot) and his two daughters, Sunshine and Stanley (Logan and Jasper Polish).

Suddenly, true life catches up with the sympathetic faux-astronaut. Farmer’s dream comes to a screeching halt when he learns that his family is in debt (roughly $600,000 worth of it), their house may be foreclosed and the FBI has sent agents (Jon Gries and Mark Polish) to keep tabs on his project. Despite protests from his concerned wife and friendly neighborhood banker, he drives his family’s economic status deeper into debt and continues with the rocket-building.

With one phone call, his attorney pal Kevin Munchak (Tim Blake Nelson) summons the press to Farmer’s side. Pretty soon, Farmer is blown up to the status of celebrity stardom and is seen as an American hero.

From here, Farmer struggles with being in the spotlight, escalating financial problems, the FBI riding his case and his friends’ doubts about the rocket’s success rate. Above it all though, he keeps his head high and decides to pursue his dream, despite everything that could go wrong.

Michael and Mark Polish pull off a successful family film that is inspiring, amusing and even a bit political. In one cleverly scripted scene, the FCC question Farmer about his rocket, thinking that it may be a threat to national security. Farmer wittingly states, “If I was building a weapon of mass destruction, you wouldn’t be able to find it.”

The Astronaut Farmer is filled with sharp dialogue such as this that brings into light some of America’s current hot-button issues. It criticizes the Patriot Act, the war in Iraq and the Bush Administration while managing to stay focused on its main theme of following one’s dreams.

Thornton shines as Charles Farmer. Because Thornton already has that Southern coolness and charisma about him, the role seems like it was scripted just for him. Madsen is Thornton’s perfect counterpart and leading lady — she is as graceful as she is talented. A special guest star pops up about halfway through the film, adding even more of a dynamic to the cast.

Although The Astronaut Farmer is a film about a subject explored dozens of times in the entertainment industry, it still captivates and charms. This Polish brothers story does manage to be sugary-sweet, but not so much as to make you gag.

wakefieldk1@lasalle.edu