Martian Child warms a sappy heart - EU Jacksonville 11/8/07

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a bad feel-good movie

by erin thursby    scopes1925@msn.com
C- Rated PG 108 min.

      Often, in the leap from book to screen, there is a large gap. In that gap are many movies that fall short of capturing the spirit of the original story. Martian Child seems to be one of those.
      I must confess, I haven’t read the book, but I know two things about it: 1) The single father who adopted the child in the book is gay. 2) It has won awards – the 1995 Hugo Award for Best Novelette and the 1994 Nebula Award for Best Novelette.
      Just based on these two things, I can tell you that the movie version of Martian Child falls into the yawning chasm of bad adaptation. This is because 1) The single father in the movie is a tragic widower, thus missing an interesting point. 2) I don’t think this movie will be winning any awards.
      Widower David (John Cusack) lost his wife two years ago. He’s a successful sci-fi writer with a ginormous Frank Lloyd Wright-type house, but he’s lonely. He already has a dog, and since he isn’t ready for a girlfriend, he decides to adopt a kid. Besides, he wants to do something meaningful with his life. The kid (Bobby Coleman) is the Martian Child of the title. He believes he’s from Mars and, at first, spends his time in a cardboard box with an eye-slit. David eventually coaxes him out of his box and into the world.
      John Cusack edges into dangerously saccharine territory with this flick. The movie isn’t saved from being too cute because his Martian Child is so weird. If you’ve been watching movies lately, you’d know that weird is the new cute.
      I wanted to get behind this movie. I really did. But it just wasn’t that good. I felt like I was watching a made-for-TV movie on a women’s channel. Luckily, it’s easy to emotionally manipulate me. I’ve been known to cry over very touching commercials. Unfortunately, even as I was sobbing during Martian Child, I was totally aware of how trite it was turning out to be. I sobbed just a little harder, knowing that I would never get those two hours of my life back.
      In the plus column, this is a movie you can take your eleven-year-old to see and you won’t have to answer any questions about violence, sex or drugs. Both Cusacks do their part to lend the movie the quirkiness it desperately needs. Joan Cusack, John’s real life sister, plays his soccer mom sister in the movie.
      The movie stays interesting and promising until David brings his little Martian home. Then it promptly takes a nosedive into contrived sentimentality.
      Maybe I’m being too hard on Martian Child. After all, the kid is adorably weird, or at least he is when he’s talking to social workers. The rest of the time he’s actually very alien, as befits the part. And John Cusack stays onscreen for most of the movie, doing a more than decent job with the material. It just wasn’t enough for me.
      It will be enough for some people. If you love those email forwards your friends send with a sentimental message about friendship, puppies, children, God and sometimes Our Troops, there’s a chance you’ll like this flick. My mom would love it.

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