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ASTRONAUT
Director: Shelagh McLeod Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Richie Lawrence, Lyriq Bent, Colm Feore, Krista Bridges, Karen LeBlanc, Art Hindle, Graham Greene MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:37 Release Date: 7/26/19 (limited) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 25, 2019 Writer/director Shelagh McLeod never quite figures out if Astronaut is fantasy or reality. The premise is one of pure fantasy, in which a man in his 70s, suffering from debilitating health issues, would make the short list of candidates to be a passenger on a trial run of a space-traveling plane. It had always been his dream to go to space, but life—a family and a job as a civil engineer—got in the way. Now, he has a final chance, and through some absurdly simple deception, a huge company pretty much falls for his ruse of being a 65-year-old man, possessing a bill of health clean enough to make the historic trip. None of this, of course, makes much logical sense, but if this story is one of fantastical wish-fulfillment, we would be able to accept it as such. That's kind of how the story of Angus' (Richard Dreyfuss) attempt to win a ride beyond Earth's atmosphere begins. A widower, he lives with his daughter Molly (Krista Bridges), her husband Jim (Lyriq Bent), and the couple's son Barney (Richie Lawrence), who desperately wants his grandfather to enter to the competition to become a passenger on the space flight. After a health scare, the family moves Angus to a retirement home, where he enters the contest and becomes a finalist. Initially, whether or not any of this is believable is beside the point, because the story is driven by a sense of longing for what had been seemingly lost. Dreyfuss conveys that quite well here, as does McLeod, who doesn't let much beyond the complications of the basic plot get in the way the main character's mounting hope. The problems arise when cold, hard reality sets in to the fantasy. This is, perhaps, an inevitability, so the issue isn't in that alone. It's in how busy with plot McLeod's screenplay becomes, with a subplot about Jim losing his job, diversions featuring some ancillary characters at the retirement home, and a central plot in which Angus tries to convince Marcus (Colm Feore), the head of the company, that the runway isn't safe. Lost among all of this is the battle between crushing regret and hopeful optimism within Angus. Astronaut becomes less of a character piece, as the movie loses its heart for a series of obstacles and external conflicts, set to a race against the clock. Copyright © 2019 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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