It’s hard to place “The Astronaut Farmer.” It could be a Sci-Fi film, since it has a rocket ship which farmer Charles Farmer (Billy Bob Thornton) is building after missing out on his chance to travel to space with NASA. But then the plot would have to provide some scientific facts instead of major plot holes.
Maybe it’s a drama, but that would require some dramatic characters in the film; from the loving farmer's wife to the somewhat clueless FBI agents who are trying to stop Farmer from fulfilling his space travel dream, every character (even a cameo by Bruce Willis) is as transparent as the screenwriter’s attempt to examine the American spirit of perseverance and family values. The characters didn’t just come out of the cookie cutter, they are the cookie cutters themselves.
Then again maybe the film is supposed to be a comedy. How else could you explain the scenes of space flight training in a county fair rocket ship ride, or the fact that the FBI completely misses thousands of gallons of rocket fuel being delivered to a farm they are supposedly watching closely? Sure, our government agencies miss things from time to time, but missing a fuel truck driving up a lonely dusty road in the middle of nowhere to a farm where the FBI knows the owner is waiting for it? I'm no rocket scientist, but ...
Maybe you could excuse all the sap, plot holes and blatant implausibility if the movie was on the Hallmark Channel, where this script belongs, and if it wasn’t directed/written by the independent film darlings, the Polish brothers. How could two directors known for their ability to capture Midwestern Americana create a film that rings so false, either because every speech out of Farmer and his family’s mouths is overblown or because the plot itself is too grand and outrageous to be taken seriously.
“The Astronaut Farmer” is nothing special at all. From beginning to end the film bounces along a very loose flightpath, all the while adding implausibility on top of implausibility as Farmer makes his earnest attempt to launch his own rocket.
In reality, just like the film, Farmer would never actually leave the ground.
<1b>— Matthew Razak