Stars: Johnny Depp, Charlize Theron, Joe Morton, Clea Duvall

Director: Rand Ravitch

Summary: Astronaut Spencer Armocost loses contact with mission control for a few minutes whilst on a routine shuttle mission, but what happened during that time?...

In this psychological thriller, NASA astronaut Spencer Armacost (Depp) and his wife Jillian's (Theron) lives are propelled into utter dismay upon Spencer's return home from a space mission that lost contact with Earth for two minutes. What happened during those frightening 120 seconds in space will effect their marriage, sanity, and ultimately threaten their lives. Screenwriter Rand Ravich's (CANDYMAN - FAREWELL TO THE FLESH) directorial debut.

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An intriguingly creepy premise but failed execution marks The Astronaut's Wife, a stylish and ultimately bland thriller about a pretty, young woman whose pretty, young astronaut husband comes back from his most recent space mission a little... odd. Before that fated space trip, Spencer (Johnny Depp) and Jillian (Charlize Theron) were a sunny, happy couple with matching blonde hairdos and a predilection for romping in the sack from extremely clever camera angles. However, after a communications blackout brings Spencer and his partner back down to earth prematurely, things are a little... peculiar. Spencer's partner goes bonkers and has a heart attack; on top of that, the partner's wife takes a fatal shower with a plugged-in radio. Getting out of the space biz, Spencer accepts a job as a corporate exec in New York, and as a welcome to the Big Apple for his comely wife, he molests her at the company cocktail party. Soon enough, Jillian is pregnant, but as you might expect, this pregnancy (twins, don't you know) is a little... unusual. Writer-director Rand Ravich takes his sweet time getting from extremely obvious plot point A to even more obvious plot point B, stretching out the development particulars in mind-numbing, suspense-killing fashion. Even Joe Morton, as a sinisterly psychotic NASA official, can't liven things up--you know you're in bad thriller territory when the biggest scare comes from a light suddenly being switched off. Theron, sporting a Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Babystyle haircut, sleepwalks beautifully through the movie, but she did this role much, much better in The Devil's Advocate. Depp, with a cornpone Southern accent, is about as realistic as his peroxided hair. Ravich does the viewer no favours with a hackneyed ending straight out of a B-grade paperback horror novel in which the most shocking moment is Theron's sudden emergence as a brunette. With Blair Brown as a jaded socialite who offers to help out Theron by providing do-it-yourself abortion pills, and a lovely Donna Murphy as the suicidal wife who figures it all out before everyone else. -- Mark Englehart, Amazon.com

Aspect Ratio:	16:9 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Alternative Ending, Trailer, Cast Biographies
Subtitles:	English
Year:	1999
Release Date:	April 24, 2000
Runtime:	100 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	E D V 9036
Keywords:	Wife, General, Fiction, Science, Drama, Horror, Sci, Fi, Astronaut's
Genre:	Science Fiction