" It is an excellent movie, and Matt Damon does his usual great job of acting as the stranded astronaut."
He was good. Read the book and watched the movie, but I couldn't help thinking, 'If he has one more problem to solve I'm going to shut this off and get a beer.' A bit like watching my plumber solve problems under my kitchen sink. Sort of interesting.
Similarily, Pillars of the Earth was an extremely popular novel, but I despaired often that the writer was putting another catastrophe in the way of completion.
My own life seems to be a series of problems to be fixed, either my body, my house or my car. Think I prefer something like Princess Bride. I can step out of my problems.