Z/Web

This was surprisingly good. I didn’t know what to expect as the trailer didn’t explain if this was a comedy or serious drama. It’s about a farmer in Texas who builds his own rocket and plans to shoot himself into orbit. It turned out to be a serious story, with the guy completely legitimate (a former Air Force pilot, he dropped out of NASA and gave up his space dreams when his family needed him at home). A big part of the story — my favorite part — is his relationship with his loyal wife, who puts up with ridicule from people who think her husband’s a nut and endures financial hardship and the potential of losing her husband if his rocket were to explode or crash. It’s realistically done with wonderful husband-wife dialog and dynamic: even when fighting you can tell the two love each other. Unfortunately, the story’s a bit predictable — like any story of this nature, there are only so many ways it can end — and that gives it a more lightweight feel than it deserves. But overall I liked it quite a bit. It’s an excellent family film about good old-fashioned values and the value of hard work.

I knew little about this going in; I thought it was about John Newton, the man who wrote the hymn Amazing Grace. Instead it turned to be the story of Wilbur Wilberforce, a contemporary of Newton, who struggles for years trying to get the British Parliment to abolish the slave trade. Very well done, with authentic performances and surprisingly clear and interesting political debates, but a bit slow at times, and in the end a bit too predictable for the length.