It`s 1957 in the small West Virginia mining town of Coalwood and the Soviet sputnik is orbiting in the October Sky. This event, frightening to many because of its demonstration of Russian power in the Cold War, is an inspiration to Homer Hickam, (Jake Gyllenhaal), a high school student who becomes obsessed with building a rocket that really works. With the help of his best mates, of school geek Quentin, (Chris Owen) and with the encouragement of his teacher, Miss Riley, (Laura Dern), Homer embarks on his apparently foolhardy enterprise. At every step of the way he`s opposed by his strict father, mine manager John Hickam, (Chris Cooper).
In many ways, October Sky is an inspiring story. The real Homer Hickam, on whose book \"Rocket Boys\" the screenplay is based, wound up a NASA engineer and the message of the film is that if you`re ambitious enough, inspired enough, obsessive enough you can make your dreams come true. The depiction of the dying mining town rings true, and there are some solid performances, with Chris Cooper impressive as Homer`s strait-laced father. But director Joe Johnston, who made \"Honey I Shrunk The Kids\" and \"Jumanji\" wasn`t the happiest choice for director; subtlety isn`t in Johnston`s lexicon. He rams every point home with at times numbing crudity in case we miss the point, and the sledge-hammer approach isn`t helped by Mark Isham`s bombastic music score.
