st. johnny depp, charlize theron, joe morton, clea du vall, donna murphy, nick cassavetes
USA, 109 mins
Two years ago the publicity campaign for this film would have targeted X-Files fans as the potential audience for this film. But with that television show's popularity declining I am not sure who this film is targeted at. I think the film is a case of too little too late.
Johnny Depp and Nick Cassavetes are two astronauts who, while on a mission, lose contact with Earth for two minutes. When they come back to Earth, it seems that are not the same people they were when they went away. The film studies the relationship between Depp and his wife, Charlize Theron. Theron is pregnant with twins, as is Cassavetes' wife, Donna Murphy, but are the babies human or alien? Is Johnny an all American hero, or is he an alien in a human body? Only Joe Morton, as an ex NASA employee, has what seems to be the answers, but will Theron listen to him?
We see the movie from Theron's perspective, we don't really see what Depp is up to, so we have to wonder if she is insane (she has a history of mental illness) or rightfully suspicious. The film may have been more interesting had we seen what Depp and Morton were up to.
Not much happens in this film, the plot is simple and we have seen it before. The X-Files can do this thing in 50 minutes. This movie takes twice as long to cover the same territory and does so without Scully and Mulder's interactions to entertain us. Theron has most of the screen time and does little with the opportunity. Depp, who has a great line of quirky and believable roles behind him, is adequately mysterious and nasty, but adapts a southern accent, continuing the annoying trend he started in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. DuVall, Cassavetes, Murphy and Morton are good in the roles, but their screen time is limited.
One of the reviews of Run Lola Run on this site posits the interactive game as the future of filmmaking. Grant Morrison (comics writer) has similar ideas, in an interview in Duck Fat (a Melbourne based zine, edited by Adam Ford) he talks about comics but in a way that relates to film also... "Kids now have an attention span of three seconds, or whatever, so I'll do a comic that that's constant plot-plot-plot and ideas - a hundred ideas a page, and it's like a video game. There's no real characterisation, there's just bits to make you feel there's characterization, but it's about speed, about the constant input of information, and that's what I thought kids would be into. And, you know, it sells, and the only people who complain tend to be the older readers, who want it to be more like the old days.'
Run Lola Run, and other films of recent times - (the Matrix, Fight Club, etc) - are fast-paced pastiches of ideas, movement and colour. We have so much film and television around us that we know the characters in movies immediately, we know most of the plots, we expect the twist ending, and we expect the end to be open to allow a sequel. The Astronaut's Wife is a slow film with a one track plot that tries to be creepy but lacks character and atmosphere. The camera shots drift between clichéd (e.g. a hand releasing a glass and it dropping in slow motion to the floor and breaking) and impressive (huge Pattonesque U.S. flags, a tent party on the tarmac, Depp's New York apartment), but the good cinematography is not enough to save this film.
As I get older, I appreciate the detail that goes into production design - the furniture, jewellery etc chosen for the film. I like seeing what people wear (I liked the Jean Paul Gautier costumes in The Fifth Element, I like the DKNY fashion in Face-Off) and well designed sets impress me. Sometimes, like in The Haunting, the sets are overwhelming, they intrude into the enjoyment of the film rather than complement it, but the sets in The Astronaut's Wife are beautifully constructed, they are subtle but gave me something to study while the plot bored me. I love the set of drawers in Theron's bedroom, but what could you store in them?
When I go to the cinema I expect a richer experience than what I get from television and this was not the case with The Astronaut's Wife. The highlight of the film for me was hearing Sid Vicious' rendition of My Way, a strange choice of song that worked effectively. One of the previews before the movie was for Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow which also stars Johnny Depp. I hope this sees him back in form, because he is a talent that deserves better than this.
sebastian niemand
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