Variety
"...Aggressively stylish..." 8/30-9/5/1999 p.51Sight and Sound
"...Genuinely chilling....Depp offers an acidic, unsettling study of the Right Stuff gone wrong..." 12/??/1999 p.36-7 Box Office
"...The movie looks and sounds fabulous..." 11/01/1999 p.170 USA Today
"...[Featuring] good performances, including the one by Depp, that chameleon of acting....[Morton] is especially good..." 08/30/1999 p.4D Salon.com 7 of 10
It's tempting to see Charlize Theron's roles in "Devil's Advocate," as a lawyer's wife who moves to New York and comes unhinged, and her role in "The Astronaut's Wife," as an astronaut's wife who moves to New York and thinks she might be coming unhinged, as a metaphor for what happens when you move to New York. It makes you wonder what would happen if these characters moved into the real New York, rather than the one in these movies -- unpopulated streets and apartments whose cost probably equals the gross national product of a small country...One of current movies' true stunners, Theron is a pleasure to watch, with her big bright eyes, full cheeks and statuesque bearing. The way her short tousled hair clings to her skull gives it an almost sculptural beauty...Nothing she does is bad, it's the role that's a dud. Theron is one of those actresses who seems to have direct access to her emotions; she doesn't have to do much to get you on her side. But she's never gotten the role that would let those emotions run the gamut, or bring out the hell-raising comic suggested by the early scenes of "Devil's Advocate" or her small role in "Celebrity." - Charles Taylor
Variety 8 of 10
"Rosemary's Baby" gets an extraterrestrial twist in "The Astronaut's Wife," an aggressively stylish but dramatically flaccid drama that plays like an upscale reprise of a '50s sci-fi potboiler. Top-flight work by professionals on both side of the camera can't quite disguise the predictability of the formulaic material. And the bland title -- perhaps more appropriate for a femme-skewing Lifetime feature -- is no help...Working from his own script, novice feature helmer Rand Ravich continues to alternate between stylized abstraction and moody naturalism as he segues to Manhattan...Convincingly maneuvering through a wide range of emotions, Theron hits the right balance of strong-willed resilience and moist-eyed vulnerability as Jillian. Her performance is more than compelling enough to sustain interest for long stretches when she's the only person onscreen...Depp is aptly ambiguous in what amounts to a supporting role, though he is hamstrung by his inability to upend audience expectations with any truly surprising twists of character. Morton is the standout among the supporting players, infusing urgency and credibility into a small but key part. - Joe Leydon
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