Astronaut, 2019.
Directed by Shelagh McLeod.
Starring Richard Dreyfuss, Richie Lawrence, Krista Bridges, Lyriq Bent, Colm Feore and Colin Mochrie.
SYNOPSIS:
A pensioner with a lifelong love of space enters a competition to be a passenger on the first ever commercial flight.
It’s a bold and brave move to cast Richard Dreyfuss as a twinkly-eyed space obsessive. Such a decision inevitably invokes the spectre of Close Encounters of Third Kind – Steven Spielberg’s beloved first contact classic. Fortunately, director Shelagh McLeod knew exactly what she was doing when she hired Dreyfuss to play the lead role in her warm, gentle drama Astronaut. Close Encounters just so happens to be one of her all-time favourite movies.
The movie features Dreyfuss as space obsessive Angus Stewart – a retired engineer who spends his evenings stargazing and teaching his grandson Barney (Richie Lawrence) about what lies outside of the Earth’s atmosphere. His health is declining and becoming increasingly difficult for his daughter Molly (Krista Bridges) to manage. Her husband Jim (Lyriq Bent) convinces her that it’s best for Angus to be put into a retirement home. At the same time, Elon Musk-alike businessman Marcus (Colm Feore) has launched a competition for one lucky person to get a seat on the first commercial space flight.
Unfortunately for Angus, the cut-off age for entrants to the competition is 65 – and he’s older than that. With the help of Barney, though, Angus decides that he’s going to take his shot and aim to have one last try at achieving his dream. It’s gentle material, but is effortlessly elevated by Dreyfuss into something truly charming. He has always been an actor with an undeniable twinkle and he seems almost born to play the grandfather who still has plenty of life left to live.
Astronaut often seems to be struggling against its own, rather slight, narrative. A subplot about the safety of the space flight is very under-cooked and the home life of Molly and Jim occasionally threatens to take more of a central position than it ever actually does. Certainly, the fact that Jim is on the verge of losing his job over some sort of insider trading should probably be more of a narrative tipping point than it is. The film just periodically loses interest.
But that never undermines the fact that the film is a consistently pleasant watch, and one that wields real emotional power whenever it places its focus on Dreyfuss’s capable shoulders. An excruciating interview segment between Angus and a glitzy TV reporter – Whose Line Is It Anyway? stalwart Colin Mochrie in a welcome cameo – is desperately sad and, ultimately, shocking. The more character-focused elements of the movie are considerably more enjoyable than the ticking clock thriller it becomes once the safety issues come to the fore.
Astronaut is unquestionably Dreyfuss’s movie and it’s a joy to see him getting the chance to take centre stage for the first time in years. In a world of virus-enforced lockdown, Richard Dreyfuss pottering around an old people’s home proves to be just what the doctor ordered.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Tom Beasley is a freelance film journalist and wrestling fan. Follow him on Twitter via @TomJBeasley for movie opinions, wrestling stuff and puns.
