The movie itself is a fine example of an allegory, telling us about dreams and growing up. What it is not is a rocket scientist's manual... so? Perhaps a more interesting example is how many reviewers flaunt their scientific knowledge (help, someone please restrain me from using quotation marks), and keep missing the movie itself. Seriously, if one thinks those scientific "errors" are errors or bad science, the joke is on the besserwisser. Technical knowledge does not equal understanding, it seems. Every time someone does not see the forest from the trees, somewhere someone gets lost. Which suits Mr. B. B. Wolf only fine, of course.
The very thought of building and intending to launch an Atlas rocket from your barn is so completely blatant even an elementary school kid would understand this is not your How to Build a Rocket in Your Barn manual or How Stuff Works. Rather a story about people and how important dreams (a bolo or a less than humane person would say 'objectives') are to people and people close to them - be them fulfilled or not. (Sur)realism of the rocket jockeying is beside the point and quite intentionally so, resulting in a pleasantly child's dream-like trip.
The Astronaut Farmer is indeed not your dime a dozen Try Hard, Die Harder, and Anything Succeeds blah blah either. It is about dreams, hope, family and love. The technically a bit stretched rocket and astronaut theme is there only as a framework, and surprisingly (at least for most) it works. Almost every little girl or boy has sometimes dreamed of flying and now that we know of it, space. Above and beyond, dudes.
If it even tried to be realistic, the whole point of the movie would tumble to Hell like an express elevator suffering an acute and complete cable failure and sporting greased pigs for brakes. You are not supposed to have any suspension of disbelief for some frakkin Atlas arc welded of empty beer cans burning a mixture of tractor oil and septic tank contents zooming 'cross the prairie before the Roadie can say "beep beep".
I am not a fan of any of the actors, and indeed don't even recognise many, but Thornton & Co play their given roles solidly. The Polish brothers seem to love references and hat-tips or slight funny pokes at other movies and popular culture in general, which is always a fun little extra for people like me. Not all of them are obvious. But I'll be damned if choosing Bruce "Armageddon" Willis as the guy who says something like "this unrealistic piece of s... ain't never gonna work" wasn't intentional. You just gotta love the sheer camp of Government Men in Black (surprise: bad guys) having the Imperial March as a ring tone.
Still, despite quite a few wry smiles it is not a comedy. A-Farmer manages to balance quite nicely between a completely tongue in cheek and mushy approach to the quixotic family problem of an obsessed man. Obsession here being the thing that for once ties the family together as a positive resource. As such, it is a nice rental (or bought at discount which in Finland means about the same 3-4 euros as a rental) and watched where it should be watched: at home with family or friends if lacking the former. If one lacks both, well, there is always Farmer's approach to the problem, not necessarily literally (although I secretly hope you do it). I wouldn't go to the silver screen for this, as most of the content does not particularly demand that kinda visual immersion although nothing wrong with them.
So just sit back and and watch how this Farmer errant fights his windmills. If you want realistic fairy tales instead of faery tales, I suggest starting with a Proctor & Gamble catalogue.
Caution: This motion picture may induce emotional reactions and give food for thought to men with teen or young adult children. Do not combine with a waning drunkenness or hangover. Absolutely fatal to losers having a middle age crisis. Emotions are bad, okay?
The very thought of building and intending to launch an Atlas rocket from your barn is so completely blatant even an elementary school kid would understand this is not your How to Build a Rocket in Your Barn manual or How Stuff Works. Rather a story about people and how important dreams (a bolo or a less than humane person would say 'objectives') are to people and people close to them - be them fulfilled or not. (Sur)realism of the rocket jockeying is beside the point and quite intentionally so, resulting in a pleasantly child's dream-like trip.
The Astronaut Farmer is indeed not your dime a dozen Try Hard, Die Harder, and Anything Succeeds blah blah either. It is about dreams, hope, family and love. The technically a bit stretched rocket and astronaut theme is there only as a framework, and surprisingly (at least for most) it works. Almost every little girl or boy has sometimes dreamed of flying and now that we know of it, space. Above and beyond, dudes.
If it even tried to be realistic, the whole point of the movie would tumble to Hell like an express elevator suffering an acute and complete cable failure and sporting greased pigs for brakes. You are not supposed to have any suspension of disbelief for some frakkin Atlas arc welded of empty beer cans burning a mixture of tractor oil and septic tank contents zooming 'cross the prairie before the Roadie can say "beep beep".
I am not a fan of any of the actors, and indeed don't even recognise many, but Thornton & Co play their given roles solidly. The Polish brothers seem to love references and hat-tips or slight funny pokes at other movies and popular culture in general, which is always a fun little extra for people like me. Not all of them are obvious. But I'll be damned if choosing Bruce "Armageddon" Willis as the guy who says something like "this unrealistic piece of s... ain't never gonna work" wasn't intentional. You just gotta love the sheer camp of Government Men in Black (surprise: bad guys) having the Imperial March as a ring tone.
Still, despite quite a few wry smiles it is not a comedy. A-Farmer manages to balance quite nicely between a completely tongue in cheek and mushy approach to the quixotic family problem of an obsessed man. Obsession here being the thing that for once ties the family together as a positive resource. As such, it is a nice rental (or bought at discount which in Finland means about the same 3-4 euros as a rental) and watched where it should be watched: at home with family or friends if lacking the former. If one lacks both, well, there is always Farmer's approach to the problem, not necessarily literally (although I secretly hope you do it). I wouldn't go to the silver screen for this, as most of the content does not particularly demand that kinda visual immersion although nothing wrong with them.
So just sit back and and watch how this Farmer errant fights his windmills. If you want realistic fairy tales instead of faery tales, I suggest starting with a Proctor & Gamble catalogue.
Caution: This motion picture may induce emotional reactions and give food for thought to men with teen or young adult children. Do not combine with a waning drunkenness or hangover. Absolutely fatal to losers having a middle age crisis. Emotions are bad, okay?