The Astronaut's Wife

By the time a character in The Astronaut's Wife succumbs to a "severe insult to the brain" in the early going, those few who have ventured out to see this bewildering anomaly unceremoniously dumped by its studio will feel they have suffered the same. Which is just as well, because the sooner such rational notions as plot and point are discarded, the more rewarding this wild indulgence in style over substance becomes.

Johnny Depp has had stranger roles than that of Spencer Armacost, space-shuttle pilot who gives the world and wife Jillian (Charlize Theron) a scare when one of his flights is interrupted by an explosion and a two-minute hiatus in contact with ground control. He returns with his syrupy Southern accent intact to impregnate Jillian with twins, but something is not quite right, especially when he starts working with a creepy military contractor.

Inevitable comparisons have been drawn to Rosemary's Baby and other lesser sci-fi standards, and first-time director Rand Ravich (screenwriter of Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh) aspires to Polanski's baroque style without achieving much of his wit or clarity. But though not many fans of the genre are going to be thrilled with a climax involving an old Philco radio, and most will find the frenetic imagery pretentious and gratuitous, Wife's insults to the brain sometimes resemble strokes of genius.

-- Peter Keough