Sunday, August 5, 2012

Screaming Sunday - The Astronaut's Wife

Sati's movie rating - 71/100
Plot:  Jillian and Spencer Armacost are perfect marriage - two loving people, always supporting each other, best friends really. Jillian is sweet kindergarten teacher and Spencer is an astronaut. Everything is fine, until during his last mission, Spencer and another astronaut lose contact with the base. When they come back Jillian starts to suspect something took over her beloved husband. When she gets pregnant her paranoia and fear start to grow rapidly, as she tries to find out if Spencer is still the man she loves or something else entirely.
The heroes: Jillian, fragile woman with the history of mental problems played with a lot of grace by Charlize Theron, who looks a lot like Mia Farrow did in Rosemary's Baby
The antagonists: Something hostile that came from space or quite simply delusions of scared woman.
What makes it so great? The film is basically like a new version of Rosemary's Baby - granted, it's not nearly as great, but it is beautifully shot, Depp and Theron have strong chemistry and Theron's work here never fails to impress me.
Best scene: The scene I remember best is when Jillian tells Spencer she is pregnant, which is the sweetest scene of that kind I've seen in any movie.
Oh-oh something's not right line: Something happened up there that these men did not train for!
Morbid Trivia: Nick Cassavetes plays Capt. Streck; Nick's father, John Cassavetes starred in Rosemary's Baby which bares many similarities to this film.
Scare factor: - 3/5 evil pumpkins - the film is quite disturbing in a sense that we see this woman who trusted her husband and could always count on his support, now being crippled by fear whenever he is around. Furtermore, she has no idea what is growing inside her and the fact she doesn't know if it's her husband's child or something else makes for many heartbreaking scenes.
Gore factor:- 1/5 bloody Leatherfaces - some creepy images and a bit of blood, but nothing horrifying, really.
Is there a twist? Yes.
Hint: I'd recommend this movie to everyone who says Depp always plays the same character - he is actually quite creepy in this movie.
Unsuitable for: Pregnant women.
Repercussions: Fear of radios. Fear of water.

8 comments:

  1. Great post. Those screenshots are quite beautiful, and Depp and Theron is an interesting pairing. Looks like I have yet another film to see. :)

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    1. Thank you! Yeah, the film looks gorgeous and there are many ineresting sequences here, the film is nothing groundbreaking but I think these two make it worth seeing.

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  2. I still haven't seen this one but I should give it a shot as I like Theron and I don't mind Depp when he actually looks like himself in a movie. "...the film is quite disturbing in a sense that we see this woman who trusted her husband and could always count on his support, now being crippled by fear whenever he is around" Oh boy, that is super creepy!! I'd be imagining what it'd be like if it were my hubby in Depp's role.

    Btw, Theron does look a bit like Mia Farrow w/ that hair.

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    1. Theron does really great job here, it's quite an unusal role for her and for Depp too, I think the movie is worth seeing just for their performances alone.

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  3. This is another one of those films that critics din't like but I enjoyed. The tension build-up was pretty good (as was the make-out scene between Depp and Theron :P ) and you're right, this is a very good role for Johnny.

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    1. Yep, the film got a lot of negative reviews but comparing to what passes for thrillers and horrors nowadays it's good.

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  4. I remember being thoroughly disappointed by this movie when I saw it in the cinema, and haven't watched it since. That said, I don't actually remember much about WHY I didn't like it, so a re-watch might be in order. Always liked Theron, but I came away from this utterly lost.

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    1. It does have flaws but she made it worth seeing for me. Plus it was quite an interesting spin on possible alien-invansion plot.

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