? Billy Bob Thornton plays one of his least eccentric eccentrics, a family man and former NASA employee who happens to have obsessively pursued his dream of building his own rocket. This is the fourth film from Mark and Michael Polish (Twin Falls Idaho, Jackpot, Northfork), but, perhaps due to its larger budget, jettisons the austere approach of their earlier work while maintaining the American heartland setting.
+ This is the very definition of the feel-good movie, crossing the inspirational sports movie genre with a family story and makes it about getting into space rather than getting to the major leagues or winning a race. (It’s not a true story, though.) Virginia Madsen and Bruce Dern play the wife and father characters. The would-be astronaut can be seen as a selfish character, but he also cares about his family, even as he threatens to bankrupt them. They’re all sort of nice to be around, and their indulgence of Dad’s weird hobby rings true. There’s a little bit of humor (including the ubiquitous Jay Leno cameo), a few FAA and NASA nogoodniks, and a some life-in-a-small-town stuff, but none of the story elements overwhelms the others. Some nice location shooting finds New Mexico substituting for Texas.
- Notwithstanding the indie credibility of the Polish Brothers, the rocket plot’s trajectory is only a little different than you’ll expect it to be. I suppose October Sky would be the other movie about rural folks headed for space, but the better comparison would be last year’s underappreciated The World’s Fastest Indian, which was also about an eccentric who liked to tinker. I’d give an edge to October Sky because it was grittier and to Indian because the Anthony Hopkins character was so endearingly odd and the story a little more elliptical.
= *** If you’ve enjoyed inspirational sports movies but have gotten tired of the sports part, this’ll be a very easy movie to like.
IMDB link
reviewed 2/23/07
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