Billy Bob Thornton and Virginia Madsen give their earnest all to convince you they have a winning, inspiring tale of hope and dreams in The Astronaut Farmer. After all, hoping and dreaming is a commodity in short supply as wars and global warming and other world problems make for an uncertain future. But the self-contradictions and implausibilities of The Astronaut Farmer regrettably cannot be forgiven.

Thornton plays Charles Farmer, a former astronaut who dropped out of the space program to save the family farm in Texas. He rides horses and walks around in a space suit while building a rocket in the barn. His dream is simple. He merely wants to launch into orbit, circle the earth once, and land safely in his backyard. While his wife (Madsen) and three children are supportive, he is bordering on insanity and he is negligent on his mortgage. NASA and the CIA and every official pencil pusher (including a brief cameo by a very famous action star) think he is crazy and say he can’t go. But Farmer knows his dream is the only thing keeping his family together.

Charlie Farmer and his family

After he is nearly kicked to the curb by the bank, an unexpected death in the family gives Farmer a little windfall to keep going. As the obstacles and naysayers grow, Farmer keeps reaching for the stars until he is good to go. But as the clock ticks down, the movie becomes more and more ridiculous and begins to fall apart at the seams with its leaps of logic and plot problems. You want to root for Charlie Farmer, but ultimately, you just want the movie to end so you can get back to pursuing your own dreams.

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,” and we all need our dreams to fuel our reasons for living. But there are other better movies to pump you up like Seabiscuit, The Straight Story, and Tucker: The Man And His Dream. As it is, The Astronaut Farmer takes off, then fizzles out.