The premise is simple enough, Johnny Depp is an astronaut who lose contact with Earth for two minutes while on a routine shuttle mission. Once back on land, strange things start happening.

The middle hour of the film is chilling and absorbing, with Charlize Theron looking suitably frazzled and spooked as Depp's pregnant wife, while Depp himself maintains the same 'am I possessed, or not?' expression throughout. Some of the scenes are fantastically spine tingling (especially when Theron is wandering around the creepy public storage building).

A lot of movies are let down by poor endings. The Astronaut's Wife never takes off because the first 20 minutes are terrible. The over acting during this period is startling, Theron already looks haunted (even though nothing has happened yet), and the portrayal of NASA is ridiculous. Depp is supposed to have been missing for only two minutes yet somehow during this period, the TV manage to run a news story and NASA manage to find the time to send an agent around to see Theron!

The supporting characters are all two dimensional (although it is refreshing to see Clea Duvall NOT playing a gothic teenage outcast for once) while the ending is anticlimactic (and very presumptuously sets the scene for a sequel).

In summary, spooky but unsatisfying.