(NOTE: Capsule version of the review is available here.)
Hollywood in past few decades forced critics to use phrase “pointless remake” more often than they would like. Sometimes that phrase can be applied even to films that aren’t remakes in strict sense of the word. One such example can be provided by The Astronaut’s Wife, 1999 science fiction thriller written and directed by Rand Ravich.
Title protagonist is Jillian Armacost (played by Charlize Theron), Florida schoolteacher with whom many American women would switch places. Her husband Spencer (played by Johnny Depp) happens to be extremely good looking man who also happens to earn a living in spectacular fashion as NASA astronaut. His latest mission as a crew member of Space Shuttle, however, doesn’t go smoothly because ground control temporarily loses contact with Spencer and fellow astronaut Alex Streck (played by Nick Cassavettes) due to an accident. Two minutes later contact is restored and Spencer and Alex return to Earth to recover. Jillian, however, begins noticing some strange changes in Spencer’s behaviour. Soon afterwards Alex dies and his wife commits suicide in mysterious circumstances. Some times later Spencer gets well-paid job in aerospace company based in New York City. Jillian becomes contacted by Sherman Reese (played by Joe Morton), former NASA official who claims that Spencer was affected by mysterious alien phenomenon. Jillian at first thinks of this as paranoid ranting, but later begins to notice increasingly sinister changes in Spencer. Things get even more complicated when she learns that she is pregnant.
The Astronaut’s Wife was one of those annoying Hollywood films that told all important plot points in the trailer. Even some of the viewers who hadn’t seen the trailer had little trouble guessing how the plot would play out because Ravich’s script looks like a carbon copy of the script for another, older but much better film – Rosemary’s Baby. Ravich, for whom this film represented feature directorial debut, sticks to that film and even Charlize Theron’s character has almost exact hairstyle worn by Mia Farrow three decades earlier. The only major script change is Satan being replaced by an alien, and only in order to give excuse for orgy of special effects in the second part of the film. Ravich, of course, lacks talent of Roman Polanski and any comparisons with Rosemary’s Baby is going to be devastating for 1999 film. Even the interesting music score by George S. Clinton and couple of good character actors are of little help. The Astronaut’s Wife bombed at the box office and was savaged by critics. Ravich never directed feature film again, although he later had decent career on television which included creation of Life, one of the more interesting police dramas of 2000s.
RATING: 3/10 (+)
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