After numerous roles playing a foul mouthed, womanizing alcoholic (see: Bad Santa and Bad News Bears), Billy Bob Thornton fights the dreaded curse of typecasting with a film all about loving your family and chasing your dreams. An enjoyable version of a two-hour Hallmark card.

We’ve all been told as a child that we can grow up and be whoever we want to be. Whether it be President of the United States (or whatever country you live in), a fireman, a baseball player, or an astronaut. Charles Farmer (Thornton) was told the same so he chose to be an astronaut.

He studied hard, he entered all the school science fairs, he graduated from college, and he finally got into NASA. Unfortunately, life doesn’t always go according to plan. A family emergency forced Farmer (note the ironic surname) to withdraw from NASA’s space program and head back to the farm before he was able to make that first trip off the planet.

Fast-forward years later and he’s still on that farm, but still has that same passion to be a moon-man as when he was a young astronaut. Farmer decided he wasn’t done chasing his dream. In The Astronaut Famer, Charlie Farmer believes he can build his own rocket (you know, like the ones that go really high in the air) to put him in orbit. With his fifteen year-old son acting as mission control and his two daughters as cheerleaders, there’s a chance he could actually pull it off. The American government, however, does it’s best to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Although an obvious work of fiction, The Astronaut Farmer is believable enough to feel like a true story. There were no corny ‘inspirational’ speeches or unneeded tears of joy that most family movies have nowadays. This film relied purely on the loving relationship of a small town family, coupled with the heart of a man who had to prove to himself he could finally accomplish what took him years and years to work for. You feel for him in his failures and cheer for him in his triumphs like you were there with him. This is an extremely moving film. I was close to pursuing my own dreams afterwards, but it was late and I was tired.

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