Astronaut review – care-home resident shoots for the stars

Richard Dreyfuss plays a retired engineer who wins a place on the first commercial space flight in an amiable, late-life adventure

A likable performance by Richard Dreyfuss livens up this easygoing drama about second chances and late-life adventure from actor-turned-director Shelagh McLeod. Dreyfuss plays a retired civil engineer who, all his life, has dreamed of going to space and is now in with a chance of winning a golden ticket. The role is a nice mirror to Close Encounters, in which Dreyfuss ditched his wife and kids to fly off with the little green men.

Here he is a family-oriented man who nursed his wife through dementia and is adored by his grownup daughter. He has lived a good life but perhaps stifles a pang of regret at the average-ness of it all. It's a film of tender feelings, though perhaps a little predictable and bluntly sentimental.