Astronaut's Wife, The MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +2 Content: -3

During a routine shuttle mission, NASA lost contact with astronauts Spencer Armacost (Johnny Depp) and Alex Streck (Nick Cassavetes) for just two brief minutes? Sherman Reese (Joe Morton), a NASA executive, suspects that during that time an alien race interrupted the mission and infected one of the astronauts with their own life force. But Reese is terminated from NASA because of these wild conjectures and he now must find Jillian Armacost (Charlize Theron), Spencers wife, and warn her that her husband is not who she thinks he is. Spencer quit NASA and took a job in New York as an aeronautics engineer executive, and Jillian is now pregnant with twins. But by whom and for what purpose have these babies been conceived? When Jillian finds out their sinister origin, she must choose between personal sacrifice and murder. This sci-fi remake of ROSEMARYS BABY will set your teeth on edge and keep you guessing to the end. But with about as much billing as recent shuttle missions, THE ASTRONAUTS WIFE isnt likely to take off at the box office.

Most of the violence in ASTRONAUTS WIFE is in keeping with the story. A hypodermic needle is jabbed into Alexs heart to revive him, and later he goes into convulsions and bleeds out of his mouth. And Alexs wife electrocutes herself in the bathtub. Jillian also envisions people dying, including herself. In one graphic killing a woman is squeezed to death with a little blood oozing out of her ear, mouth, and hand. And In another scene a man is electrocuted and killed while standing in a pool of running water. Sexual intercourse is implied between Spencer and Jillian under the covers in bed. And in another more prolonged scene sexual talk and groping precedes Jillian wrapping her legs around Spencer, and a scene of violent intercourse is shown with graphic motion and sounds but no nudity. Language is fairly toned down compared to recent R-rated movie but still includes 14 obscenities and 7 regular profanities. THE ASTRONAUTS WIFE has all the right stuff to entertain but adds too much of the wrong stuff for Previews tastes.

Preview Reviewer: Cliff McNeely
Distributor: New Line Cinema, 888 7th Ave, 20th Floor, NY, NY 10013, (212)941-3800