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Astronaut's Wife, The

Suspense is always a thrill for me. While watching this film, I waited for the suspense "just around the corner" or "any minute now." I guess I was in suspense while waiting for the suspense. Cunning Rand Ravich, the writer and director, held me in suspense. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad I saw this movie. The story begins with a handsome astronaut, Spencer Armacost (Johnny Depp) and his fellow astronaut, Alex Streck (Nick Cassavetes), who are coming home to earth from a trip in space. The impressive cinematography captured the feeling of another world. Rand Ravich, the writer and director of "The Astronaut's Wife," knows his film history. As Spencer's wife, Jillian Armacost (Charlize Theron) watches a huge screen where her husband is landing, which reminded me of the classic movie, "North by Northwest." Sophisticated Cary Grant stood in the middle of nowhere on a flat open surface in complete silence and suddenly -- well, it's suspenseful and probably produced before a lot of the readers were born.

When Spencer and Jillian are together again, it's strained and, yet, they're still deeply in love, married, and can read each other's thoughts. There are glances across crowded rooms where they look at each other and a wordless communication seems to happen. Both actors handle their parts well through these silences. By the way, the astronaut's wife, Jillian Armacost, is stunning and coiffed in the exact same hairstyle as Mia Farrow in "Rosemary's Baby," another classic in my view. I think that is also interesting to note while you're watching the film.

At a reunion party, the two astronauts are praised with cheers and hurrahs all around, but the other astronaut, Alex Streck, dies. The doctors explain his death, but no one talks about what happened up there in outer space for two minutes when everything went dark. More happenings occur and then Spencer leaves the space program and takes an executive job in New York with, of course, his lovely wife following him. The film is shot at angles reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock and the futuristic look fits science fiction. There is the innuendo of a psychological thriller. Suffice it to say, I didn't even notice when I had finished my popcorn.

Written by: Judith Fox

Reviewers Rating: 7.5
Reader's Rating: 7.56
Reader's Votes: 32

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