There are some days, weeks even, where time is at a premium.  Indeed, that seems increasingly to be the case for most of us, does it not?  It feels as if we never have enough minutes in the day to do anything.  For this Catholic reviewer, most often this leads me to choosing films of a shorter run time.  The hour and a half feature variety is the perfect length.  I can usually watch a movie in that time, and have my critique written in the same amount of time later.  That makes six hours of productivity, which is a solid work day for anyone.  Of course, it is not always perfect, but you get the point.  At the same time, not all films that fill out those chunks on the daily calendar fit neatly into those slots, nor do my treatment of them.  Today’s film, The Astronaut is a little less than ninety minutes, but it feels like it should have been longer.  Perhaps what follows will explain why this is the case?

It is clear enough why there are boats rushing towards The Astronaut, Captain Sam Walker (Kate Mara), whose capsule has just landed in the middle of the ocean.  It floats there benignly, but as the coast guard opens the hatch and clambers aboard, something is amiss.  Actually, something did not miss the vessel for there is a hole in it, and her helmet’s faceplate has been shattered, leaving a blue residue.  Captain Walker is unconscious, and wakes up in a hospital with concerned staff bustling about her.  They do not approach while she sees a pen wavering in the air under its own power.  When the hazmat suited personnel arrive, she reports the phenomenon, but they brush it off as a post-space hallucination.  Indeed, this apparently explains her bruising, headaches, nose bleeds, tinnitus, and a few other persistent maladies.  Because she is due to return to space in a few months, she is concerned that these lingering problems will prevent that return.  Everyone, though, including her adoptive father, General William Harris (Laurence Fishburne), is telling her that rest is the best remedy.  For Captain Walker, her preferred medicine is her family, namely husband Mark Walker (Gabriel Luna) and her own adopted daughter, Izzy Walker (Scarlett Holmes).  While Captain Walker is in quarantine, they come to visit her and they talk about how much they miss her.  However, before they can reunite, more recuperation is needed for her, including additional tests.  To accomplish this, they send her to a special house in the Virginia hills outside of Washington, D.C.  It is an ultra-modern, well-appointed home that her physician, Dr. Michelle Aiden (Ivana Miličević), says is typically set aside for foreign dignitaries.  Once Captain Walker is settled, they leave her to her devices.  That night, though, strange things begin to happen.  While talking to Val (Macy Gray), a colleague with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), she begins to see things outside, as well as later noticing flickering lights in the building.  The next day, following the battery of tests she must endure, she hikes into the woods and discovers a series of cables leading to hidden security cameras around the property.  In the process, she trips and knocks herself out.  Upon coming to, she learns that General Harris’ men had found her in the woods and brought her back during a routine security sweep.  Speaking of security, to assuage some of Captain Walker’s growing suspicions, her stepfather reveals a hidden door leading to a safe house and bunker where all the grounds are monitored.  She is mollified for a moment, but it appears that her symptoms are not subsiding, mainly the bruising.  As for whatever has been stalking the grounds, that night she has another encounter, one that trips the home’s automatic defenses, locking it down and trapping her inside with no cell service.  As she listens to the sounds of heavy footsteps and strange echoes, she eventually makes her way to the bank of screens hoping to catch a glimpse of the creature.  What she sees is otherworldly and frightening, and she falls asleep at the desk.  What awakens her is the usual alarm alerting her that the doctors will be there for more testing.  Today, she is also getting a visit from General Harris and her family.  It is welcome because Captain Walker is trying to save her marriage with Mark, who is not enjoying her constant absences because of her work with NASA.  Despite that trepidation, Mark and Izzy come anyway, and it is to Mark that Captain Walker first reveals her suspicions that something might have come back with her from space.  As for General Harris, he examines the footage and claims to have witnessed nothing out of the ordinary.  General Harris departs, but Captain Walker’s family stays.  During a walk through the woods, they begin noticing strange behavior from the cicadas, which swarm towards the house.  They make it inside just before the mass of insects slam against the windows, killing themselves.  Everyone is shaken, but Mark promises to return that night with Izzy.  Before that can happen, Captain Walker’s bruising begins to morph into slime while she is once again visited by an unknown entity.  As had previously happened, the building’s defenses are triggered, but this time the creature is already inside.  As the chaos break out, her skin begins to glow as we get our first real glimpse of the alien.  There are some disturbing similarities between its fluorescent spots and what is happening to her.  Somehow, she makes it outside just as Izzy, Mark, and General Harris arrive.  They all chase Captain Walker into the woods where the truth of her alien origin is revealed, first by one of the newcomers, then confirmed by General Harris.  Further, the military had sent her into space in order to lure her species back to the planet, who had escaped a government facility decades ago.  Mark attacks General Harris as Captain Walker completes her transformation back to her original form.  With one last goodbye to Izzy, Captain Walker joins her people and they depart the planet.

The fact that Captain Walker turns into an alien at the end of The Astronaut and leaves with her own kind was disappointing for me.  Minutes prior, when she first comes face-to-face with the alien, she thinks she is about to be killed.  She pleads with them, telling them that she has a family.  It is then that they reveal that they are her real kin.  With current cinema, the concept of extended family is a tired motif.  I blame the Fast and Furious franchise, but the less said about those movies, the better.  I should not be so glib.  After all, Catholicism is the first Western religion to champion the idea of extended families in a concrete manner.  The most obvious things to point out are the fact that female and male religious are referred to as sisters and brothers.  The only thing that binds them to one another to make them call one another as such is the fact that they, like all of us, are adopted children of God.  Indeed, it is not uncommon to refer to your fellow citizens by these same titles even if you do not live within the confines of a monastery.  There is also the fact that we refer to priests as father, and the pope as the “Holy Father.”  These things matter to the movie because of the relationship between Captain Walker and General Harris.  Though I had my suspicions, I did not suspect that he would turn out to be the villain of the story given the warmth he displayed for her.  There is also the bond between Izzy and Captain Walker to consider.  These connections are forged between these people because they felt a calling to do so.  It is a conscious decision, like entering religious life.  Granted, General Harris’ motivation is of a nefarious nature, but the point stands.  We join ourselves to God, too, as a matter of choice.  Because these are choices, I would have liked to have seen Captain Walker stay with her family on Earth.  I guess General Harris prevents this from happening, but it would have been my preferred ending.

Because I did not get my preferred ending to The Astronaut, I have mixed feelings about the whole production.  As I mentioned in the introduction, it could have used a bit more exposition, even if that would add to the wait time.  I had been concerned that it is billed as a “science fiction/horror” movie.  There are some creepy, somewhat off-putting parts, but nothing too crazy.