Review: Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

Reviews

Martian Child

Get out your hankies

By ROB NELSON | October 31, 2007

3.0 Stars

VIDEO: Watch the trailer for Martian Child.

John Cusack has held up well for a man in his third decade of Hollywood hustling. Nevertheless, between the forthcoming war-at-home weepie Grace Is Gone and this vastly superior tale of a widowed sci-fi novelist who dares to adopt a “freaky little dude,” the former Lloyd Dobler appears determined to play every wobbly note of the early middle-age blues. Get out your hankies: even if Cusack’s grieving single dad can learn to handle the title toddler (Culkin-esque Bobby Coleman), a pale urchin who insists he’s been sent from the Red Planet, will social services (in the form of stern-faced Richard Schiff) allow these kindred fantasists to stay together? Directed by Spielberg protégé Menno Meyjes, Martian Child is contrived, but it works — only the use of Cat Stevens’s “Don’t Be Shy” feels like undue button pushing. Earnest and insightful, the movie explores familiar parental dilemmas as well as the particular challenge of communicating unconditional love to an orphan.

Related: Company man, Interview: John Cusack sounds off on War, Inc., Non-starter, More

Topics: Reviews , Celebrity News, Entertainment, Movies, More

| More

ARTICLES BY ROB NELSON

CONSTANTINE'S SWORD | May 28, 2008
Scarier than Jesus Camp (and infinitely smarter), Oren Jacoby’s documentary film of Boston Globe columnist James Carroll’s 2001 book Constantine’s Sword casts Christianity as a lost ark raided by the worst bullies of history.

SON OF RAMBOW | May 07, 2008
Funnier than anything in this vaguely dark comedy is the thought of Stallone sitting through it.

MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS | April 16, 2008
Three years after 2046 , Wong Kar-wai is not in love any more — and I for one am happy for him. Perfectionism can be exhausting for all involved.

IRANIAN CHICK | January 10, 2008
At 38, Marjane Satrapi still resembles the kid in Persepolis , her autobiographical graphic-novel-turned-animated-film of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.