The Astronaut Farmer 2007

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A mysterious little movie about a man following his dream, The Astronaut Farmer seems to be a visitor from some alternative universe, a place where logic and reason and recognizable human behavior have little reign. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: A dysfunctional movie. I sort of liked it anyway, at least parts of it. The actors made me. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: This movie is some muddled imagineering. It's a glib fantasy that soars beyond the misinformation belt into the vacuous realm of misinspiration. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: The Astronaut Farmer's goofy quality makes it totally endearing. It's also super entertaining. Critics are fond of referring to movies as a 'great ride.' With this one, the words couldn't be more apt. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The film feels fraudulent -- not deceitful, but hard to swallow. We're told Farmer is $600,000 in debt, yet a $300,000 windfall solves everything. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Too odd for a studio movie, too cornpone for the independent scene, The Astronaut Farmer</i? finds its creators stuck awkwardly between worlds, making what amounts to a deep curiosity. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: It's impossible to take The Astronaut Farmer seriously on a literal or dramatic level if the ending's never in doubt. In the back of our minds, we have an idea where things will end up, so most of the movie is a waiting game. Read more

Janice Page, Boston Globe: From the very first shot of Thornton on horseback, herding stray cattle in his spacesuit, this is a work that often feels orchestrated instead of inspired, literal rather than ethereal. Read more

Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times: It follows the paradigm of inspirational movies so perfectly that even the smallest deviation seems rebellious. The movie's orthodoxy is precisely what allows us to take such pleasure in its irregularities. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: The value of [Farmer's] dream and its potential for destruction are irrelevant. Refusing to accept defeat is all that matters -- at least if you're the designated good guy. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Look, there's Bruce Willis, an old astronaut buddy from Farmer's aeronautics-training days! No, Mission Control, this isn't Armageddon. Ben Affleck is nowhere in sight... Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Some movies are so flagrantly awful that they achieve classic status. To this rarefied company we must now add The Astronaut Farmer, a nut brain fable that is all the more perversely enjoyable for being seriously intended. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: It tries to be more than an amusing Disney sitcom about crazy dad and his big rocket. But it's somewhat less than a deep exploration of character and responsibility. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: The Polish boys have a fine time poking fun at government paranoia, mass commercialization, bureaucrats, banks, WMDs and all manner of modern nonsense. But throughout the film two things remain central: Farmer's love of family and his dream. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The movie is so serenely in orbit that there's nothing to do but float along and enjoy the strange, sweet ride. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Though there is no lack of amusement in all this, the Polish brothers and the cast play it perfectly straight. Farmer is as determined to go to space as Mister Deeds is to go to town or Mr. Smith is to go to Washington. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: The strength of the movie lies in its timelessness, its feel for those parts of the American landscape, and national character, that remain unchanging through the ages. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: The rare film that can make you question your own sanity, but The Astronaut Farmer is so lacking in plausibility, explanation, motivation and physical science that you start to ask: Is it me? Rest assured: It's them. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: What could have been a sagebrush Fitzcarraldo wants to be a feel-good fable. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: I was content to go along for the ride with this excellently cast labor of love -- which shows just how much you can accomplish with $12 million and more imagination than most big-studio re leases can muster these days. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: A dreadful mismatch of indie 'arty' filmmakers and a Hollywood popcorny family formula script. The [directors] copy shots, icons and themes from The Right Stuff, but plainly never got a handle on how to make their quirky screenplay work. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: No adult should feel ashamed seeing it because, regardless of the age of the viewer, the reward is worth the investment of 100 minutes. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: One of the loopiest inspirational-dreamer movies you'll ever see. This is the kind of film where you're watching some strange madness transpiring and you're thinking, 'I'll bet this is a dream sequence' -- only it's not, it's just more cheery weirdness. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: You keep waiting for the other shoe to drop: When will the irony start? The twist is there isn't one. The Astronaut Farmer starts out looking like a parody of wholesome inspirational fare and then gets ever-more sincere and outlandish. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: You either roll with the hokum or you don't. If you do, the essential message of realizing your dreams flies as well as Jimmy Stewart's angel wings. If you don't, reality is as close as the nearest window. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Fueled by a decidedly American formula of can-do crazy, The Astronaut Farmer feels, for all its libertarianism, a little lost in space. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: This is neither a satire nor an allegory. It's an infuriating and formulaic attempt at inspirational drama that panders so appallingly to an American audience hungry for uplifting tales of derring-do that it feels insulting from start to finish. Read more

Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice: This movie works precisely because it's bereft of modern cinema's cynicism -- that above-it-all sneer that permeates most of the well-intentioned kiddie films made more to hold parents' attention than their children's. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: The movie's unpretentious lightheartedness, which echoes the old-fashioned, corn-fed lore of Frank Capra, or even The Andy Griffith Show, makes it blissfully easy to sign on for this good-natured voyage. Read more