Astronaut's wife is nowhere near as bad as its reputation suggests. In fact I honestly found it to be engrossing, while being deliberately slow-paced. It really does echo Rosemary's baby throughout. It's almost as if the filmmakers were heavily influenced by it, and wanted to make a tribute to it of sorts. The eerie atmosphere definitely helps things, as there was more than one occasion I felt creeped out. Astronaut's Wife relies on messing with your mind, and making you think. It really is a movie that requires at least a couple of viewings in my opinion, to fully appreciate it. Some people accused of Johnny Depp of being too low-key here, I respectfully disagree. I thought he handled the part beautifully and was very creepy. I think many people hate this movie is because of the deliberate slow pace, and that it tried to be something different. Rosemary's Baby was hailed as a classic, but not without a fair amount of controversy in between. Astronaut's Wife's criticism was much harsher, but in the same mold.

Performances. Johnny Depp is perfectly low-key here. He garnered a lot of criticism for his portrayal, but he was great in my opinion. He gave me the willies on more than one occasion. Charlize Theron is excellent in her role. She carried the film very well, and had a perfect chemistry with Depp. We aren't sure if she's crazy or not, and that was a tough feat to pull off. Joe Morton is suitably creepy and mysterious in his role. Clea DuVall is rather wooden and unlikable in her role.

Bottom line. It is far from perfect, but I still quite enjoyed it. Accept its deliberate pace and put your brain on thinking mode. I dislike the hatred this film gets.Recommended

7/10

If you've seen ROSEMARY'S BABY, don't watch this film. If you haven't seen ROSEMARY'S BABY, still don't watch this film. For THE ASTRONAUT'S WIFE is one of the worst Hollywood movies I've seen in a good while, a silly, extraordinarily clichéd and terribly over-obvious exercise in supposed paranoia, mystery and ultimately, horror. It's one of those films where the director only has this one film on his C.V., and from the very beginning it's clear he's totally out of his depth.

Charlize Theron is cast in the Mia Farrow role – and made up to look just like her – but proves to be nowhere near as talented. It doesn't help that her character is bland and dull, but Theron herself must take a lot of the blame for creating such an unsympathetic heroine. Her acting is terrible, and it's near impossible to reconcile this boring, wooden actress with the lady who won an Oscar for playing a serial killer in MONSTER.

The oh-so-slow story involves Johnny Depp going 'missing' in space for a couple of minutes – and returning to Earth a changed man. Of course, it takes his supposedly loving wife a full hour and a half for her to realise this, at which point the ending arrives. It's fair to say that anybody familiar at all with this type of film will be easily able to guess what's going to happen at the end – and sure enough, I was right.

Depp himself appears to be sleepwalking through his part. You can see why he was drawn to the role – it's another chance for him to be weird and clinical – but there's absolutely nothing of interest from him throughout the movie and as a supposedly scary character he's a total failure. The only decent turn comes from the underrated Joe Morton, who bags the few interesting segments in the entire film (and they don't even bother giving him a send-off). Samantha Eggar and Tom Noonan get bit parts while the intensely irritating Clea DuVall bags a meatier role. Avoid.

Jillian (Charlize Theron) is a teacher and her husband Spencer Armacost (Johnny Depp) is an astronaut. Something goes wrong in his mission. He wakes up from his coma as a changed man. His fellow crewman Alex Streck has a disturbing episode and dies. Alex's wife commits suicide. Spencer leaves NASA for the private sector. Jillian feels lost and then she gets pregnant with twins. NASA Representative Sherman Reese (Joe Morton) comes to her with dire warnings.

It's a really slow really long countdown. The drama has no bite. The movie has no tension. It turns into Rosemary's Baby midway through but this is nowhere near the classic horror. Johnny Depp doesn't have the menace. It's missing the paranoia. It's never in doubt about Spencer. The climax is less than climatic. It's a mostly weak film.