Martain Child
- September 27th, 2008
- COMMENTS 6
Martian Child is a romantic drama starring John Cusack (whom I love) as David Gordon, a recently widowed, successful science fiction writer who longs to do something meaningful with his life. What he decides that something is, is to adopt a child.
His sister, played by none other than his real life sister Joan Cusack (whom I also love) is opposed to the idea, being a mother herself, thinking he is taking on more of a task than he realizes. David, not even sure he himself thinks its a good idea, falters, but is eventually won over by the ever allusive Dennis.
Dennis, played by the talented Bobby Coleman, is an abandoned orphan, who has convinced himself he is an alien from Mars. In his mind, he has created an alternate world from which he is here on a mission; a mission to study earth and of all things, the rate at which possessions deteriorate. He takes thousands of pictures, and ultimately steals things (to study of course,) hangs upside down so as to counteract the detrimental effects of earth’s weak gravitational pull, wears a “gravity belt” (made of heavy batteries and duct tape so as to prevent himself from floating away), and coats himself in sunscreen since he is “too close to the sun” and fears he will burn up. All these quirks, plus many others, do not scare David, who becomes captivated by Dennis, and sees in the unusual child traits of himself. It is his thinking that they can save each other.
Many critics and viewers alike have trashed this movie, citing that Cusack is lacking in emotion and parental connection with the child. I however felt as though the early detachment was intended, illustrating how both “father” and “son” were too afraid to expose themselves to potential pain as both had been abandoned: David by his wife who died two years previously, and Dennis, who parents had left him for dead.
Yet both tried in their own way to connect, and I saw that ultimately happen - I felt it happen. And to me, that made this a very successful film.
Is this movie without holes? No. As with most movies, there are always holes and questions left unanswered. But I think in some ways, with this movie especially, they are designed to give the viewer reason to believe in the underlying message without tangible evidence the message exists. I know that sounds a little indulgent on my part, but if you see the movie with an open mind, you might find yourself to be a bit indulgent as well.
This movie is definitely a chick flick, and me, being a chick, think its definitely worth watching - to hell with what the critics say.
Critics are just a bunch of stuffy old men anyway.
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We really liked this movie. You can see my review here. We thought it was good, but definitely a renter, not a buyer.
Brian Fitzpatricks last blog post..Amazing Music from the Sun (Courtesy of VSL)
Kickboxing. Sport of the future!
This doesn’t sound all that good but I’ll watch just about anything that has John and Joan in it. I even liked War, Inc. And my wife loves them more than I do.
Lurples last blog post..Deadly Outbreak
I will admit that I saw this, I give it a 6/10.
Petra will you be doing Dexter reviews!?
Regretful Mornings last blog post..Budweiser Demotivator
Hey Petra, I seem to have found a proxy add on for my Mozilla that works okay and gets me into sites like yours without shutting my browser down.
I see you use the Look Who’s Talking widget but I can get it to work on my side bar. I will monkey with it again. I have a comment widget but that looks nice. I really just wanted to drop in and say hi. I have never heard of this movie but I like John Cusack usually so if I see it will get it. DVDs in here in China are cheap. Less than a buck in USA. Of course I get paid in RMB not dollars, but I still have over a 1000 DVDs all over the place here. Great I can get here now, you will be pestered a little more now.
If the kid turned out to actually be from Mars, then I might watch it. Then it could have been called Kpax Junior.
Tims last blog post..I Do Things Like Send JD a Gift Basket!
Hi Fitz - thanks for stopping by. Read your post - left comments.
Lurple - yeh me too. I still can’t believe I watched High Fidelity….
Regret - NO and it SUCKS! I don’t have Showtime. With HBO and Howard already on my receipt, I just can’t bring myself to add yet another pay channel. Maybe I can watch it online….. hmmm… gotta look into that.
Hi Bill - glad you are having better luck reading my blog. You know I love when you stop by and comment.
My Talkin’ widget is actually a twitter plugin that I modified since I cannot quite get into the who twitter thing. I’ve tried, I just can’t stay focused long enough or something…. a buck a DVD huh? that sounds great! Altho China scares me a little….
TIM - that seems to be the general consensus. Only problem is I am not a Kevin Spacey fan so I have not seen Kpac. Not sure if I could stomach it which is odd considering the movies I like…