La femme de l'astronaute

THE ASTRONAUT'S WIFE / (1999) **

Johnny Depp plays a NASA astronaut named Spencer Armacost who, while on a space mission, losses contact with Earth for two minutes. He and his colleague, Alex Streck (Nick Cassavetes), return home to their spouses, Jillian Armacost (Charlize Theron) and Natalie Streck (Donna Murphy). Bizarre episodes begin to occur with Alex, leaving Jillian suspicious of her husband's condition. As her husband's strange behavior increases, Jillian begins to question what really happened in those 120 seconds.

"The Astronaut's Wife," written and directed by Rand Ravich, poorly executes good ideas. We have imaginative and potentially suspenseful ideas with this film's concepts behind such happenings in two minutes as Spencer and Alex are in galactic boundaries. The gradual increase in Spencer's unusual behavior depicts effective suspense-but thorough introduction of the characters does not take place, nor do we witness the key events in which the rest of the move hinges upon. Consequently, "The Astronaut's Wife" does not work.

The film's first act is full of incidences, characters, and subplots. Clearly too many things happen too early in the story. Within the first thirty minutes the production attempts to develop two separate relationships, shows us the atmosphere of a teacher's workplace, something bizarre transpires out of earth's orbit, a decision is made to resign and move to New York, a suicide takes place, a character mysteriously dies, and probably more. I just couldn't follow the plot.

I liked the eerie, supernatural overtones located throughout the production. The film is smart to reveal the right amounts of information at the precise time. There is also a certain style to "The Astronaut's Wife," containing an elusive mood, a weirdly intriguing design, and some tense and unusual camera angles. The movie becomes more interesting as we reach the closing.

Charlize Theron has been in a lot of movies lately, but "The Astronaut's Wife" is her first leading role. She seems to have come out of left field in 1997 with the comedy "Trail and Error." Afterwards, she contributed larger performances in "The Devil's Advocate," "Celebrity," "Mighty Joe Young," and most recently "The Cider House Rules," and "Reindeer Games." Her role in "The Astronaut's Wife" is a little more complex than her past credits, excluding her enticing and believable acting job in "The Devil's Advocate." She presents the traumatized Jillian Armacost with the perfect blend of zest and tragic confusion.

Depp and Theron conjure a chemistry-rich couple. The movie very clearly takes Jillian's point of view instead of allowing us to know mysteries with Spencer. This stays consistent and focused, but sometimes leaves us pondering about unexplained events.

"The Astronaut's Wife" builds for an awe-inducing conclusion through revealing and intriguing dialogue and an omnipresent undertone. The film suggests a form of extraterrestrial is behind the deaths of several characters as well as the strange behavior of Spencer, but we learn the truth only in the end. Call "The Astronaut's Wife" an unusual "The X Files" episode featuring a cliffhanger conclusion and a supernatural climax. The movie must have appeared really exciting on script. If only more capable filmmakers would have claimed this production we may have had a real winner. Instead audiences feel disappointment and failure, potential is wasted and originality is underscored

This film's plot and story could easily be distilled into a wonderful 22-minute script for a Twilight Zone episode. Or perhaps a short sci-fi B movie from the 50s.

I thought the acting was fine, and the production values were superb. But my overall impression is that there were a lot of plot complications but not really much of a plot.

As noted by other comments, there were some good ideas lurking in this script, but the major deficiency is that those ideas were not developed and presented in an entertaining way, so as to keep the audience's attention.

I saw this film in a cinema when it was first released 25 years ago. I watched it again tonight, in case there was something I missed back then. On this second viewing, I find I didn't miss a lot.

Before watching this movie, I was slightly put off by the other reviews.. I thought it was perhaps one of those movies that you can either love or hate but no one fully understands it.. but no.. it isn't the most brilliant movie ever, but it's good! the story is a bit simple, but entertaining enough! Makes you tense like any thriller should, makes you wait what turns out. Some compare it to Rosemary's baby but from the space, although I think I know where this comparison comes from, I strongly disagree. And I need to add that Astronaut's Wife in my opinion is a far more entertaining movie to watch than Rosemary's baby. Overall pleasant way to spend your time.. Just don't expect a masterpiece and you will enjoy it.

I watched this movie yesterday, and I was hooked to its haunting story till the end. First I have to say the performances were excellent, Johnny Depp still surprises me with his variety of roles, I can't imagine he could have done the hilarious role of Captain Jack Sparrow after this scary role.

His eyes were acting more than any part of his body and you could feel the slight change in his character through the stillness of his eyes. Charlize Theron gave a better performance than her Devil's advocate role although they had the same criteria, the disturbed wife. But her genuine agonizing performance distinguished her in this movie.

I noticed the music was a major pillar in this movie, it was like another main character in this movie, the editing was great also especially the scene in the subway. The story was an original also, it had good turn ups and twists.

The movie had all the right elements in general and it certainly doesn't deserve a 4.7 on the imdb. I think the voters were greatly disappointed after seeing all those good elements destroyed by the cheesy and typical ending that only producers could have had a part with, in order to make another sequel.

The ending by all means was bad, it destroyed the originality of the story and the tension build up. I give it an 7.5 for all the good elements, it would reached a 9.0 if the ending was different.

The Astronaut's wife is a bad film- no two ways about it. The plot is basically Rosemary's baby in a science fiction template. Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron play a married couple about to have a baby when Depp, an astronaut is assigned a space mission. Something happens out there and although he returns in one shape something is amiss. The film is slow paced and doesn't really go anywhere, from what I remember. This is a film that should be considered only if nothing else interests you in the science fiction catalogue.