After making a bold cinematic debut (Twin Falls Idaho), writer/directors Mark and Michael Polish utterly failed to connect with audiences in their next two attempts, Jackpot and Northfork. Their first mainstream release, The Astronaut Farmer, continues that losing streak, even as they bend over backward trying to be more accessible. The film has a basic dopiness factor to overcome, with a poster featuring a space-suited Billy Bob Thornton riding a horse, like he might be trying his hand at lunar agriculture. And then there's the problem of the title -- he's a farmer, whose name is Farmer, but he's also an astronaut, or would have been, and might be again. But what's really wrong with The Astronaut Farmer is much simpler: the villains are right, and the hero is wrong. On the face of it, Charles Farmer's dream to launch his homemade rocket (with his 15-year-old son at mission control!) seems like one of those things the audience should root for. The writer/directors have filled Farmer's hometown with likable folks who've known each other for years, painted the FAA bigwigs as stern killjoys -- and, for good measure, made them all equally naïve and unbelievable. This doesn't change the fact that there are dozens of good reasons amateur rocket launching is frowned upon by the government. In fact, Thornton's character illustrates several of them, nearly killing hundreds of people on one occasion, nearly bankrupting his family on several others, all so he can briefly fulfill his vainglorious desire to experience space travel. But Farmer is not merely capable of large-scale blunders -- he also throws a brick through a bank window, like a surly teenager. All of this makes the Polishes seem foolish for trying to put a lump in our throats over this man who won't -- but should -- let his dream die.