Movie Review: Martian Child

By Colin MacLean Nov 2, 2007, 14:14 GMT

Based on the novel of the same name by David Gerrold. John Cusack stars in the film as a sci-fi writer crushed by the recent death of his fiancee. To deal with his grief, he forms an unlikely family with a close friend (Amanda Peet) and a young boy  But their new relationship gets off to a rocky start when the child becomes convinced that he\'s from the Red Planet.  The ...more

Going all the way back to 1984 and Sixteen Candles, John Cusack has made a sixty-movie career playing likeable young men. Not content to assay the same character or the same genre again and again, the actor has given us notable performances in horror (1408), gangster (Grosse Paint Blank), adventure (Con Air), fantasy (Being John Malkovich) - every type of movie style you can think of.

He’s equally at home playing the lead or in ensemble works. He’s distinguished himself in competition with some of the greatest scenery chewers in the business. I once asked the actor if he ever felt inhibited playing against Al Pacino or Julia Roberts and he replied honestly, “No, by now I think I’ve learned how it’s done.”

He certainly has. Martian Child may not be the best film of his career but he brings the same easy, intelligent reading to his character that he brings to all his performances. He is so right, so true in his approach that it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role.

Martian Child is a rather curious film in today’s cinema – an old fashioned, heartfelt story of the healing power of love. In fact, director Menno Mayjes’s film seems to celebrate its vintage feel. When was the last time you heard the Electric Light Orchestra on a sound track?

In Martian Child, Cusack plays David Gordon who, even as a child, was a misfit dreaming of alien worlds and their exotic inhabitants. He turned his dreams into words to become a hugely successful sci-fi writer.

And then lost his wife.

At odds with his life, he can’t seem to get things started, either emotionally or literarily, despite the assistance of his worried sister (played with her usual intelligence and comic smarts by Joan Cusack - John’s sister). Gordon also has the support of his best gal pal - a sympathetic turn from Amanda Peet.

David comes up with the vague idea of adopting a child. Fate matches him with Dennis (Bobby Coleman), a troubled kid who lives out his days looking at the world through a hole in a cardboard box. If David always wanted to be an alien, Dennis believes he is one. Abandoned at birth and kicked out of a series of foster homes, it is no wonder he is looking for love in the stars. He believes that he is only on a scouting mission to the earth and will soon be taken back home.

David recognizes another lost soul and is undaunted by the obvious – that the child is having severe mental problems. Or is he? This otherworldly kid has some strange powers including the ability to change traffic lights.

It helps that Coleman is an eccentric looking kid with commanding wide set eyes and a rosebud mouth.
 
As is the way in these films, David adopts him.

By now, you could probably write the rest of the story. But the cast is so winning and the script, written by Seth Bass and Jonathan Tolins (Twilight of the Gods), is so witty and heartfelt that you will be carried along by it all.

I suppose we won’t hear from this film at Oscar time but if you want a warm, honest work that shows, once again, that the movies have the power to touch your heart, you might want to consider Martian Child.