Movie Review - 'Martian Child'

Martian Child

Starring John Cusack, Bobby Coleman and Amanda Peet
Directed by Menno Meyjes
Rated PG

Kindred spirits meet in pretty conventional ways in the movies. Martian Child is really not too different in that regard, but it has a good soul, one that tries lots of combinations for its characters before the right one clicks.

John Cusack is a natural to play a reclusive writer with a gloomy outlook. It kind of goes without saying. By extension, you could see Cusack, or at least the characterization of Cusack we often see, not fitting in as a child. Writer David Gordon admits to it and credits it for his success as a science fiction author.

But David life is incomplete. He found someone who understood him, which I can say from my own corner of the world is truly unique, and then that someone was gone. Two years later, David tries to fill that void by adopting a boy that reminds him of a picked on kid who grew up to be a fairly well-adjusted sci-fi writer.

But this boy has deep scars. Dennis (Bobby Coleman) claims he's from Mars. We see it as a defense mechanism for a child for whom Earth doesn't make much sense. Dennis spends his days inside a box, wears sunscreen and sunglasses indoors and only eats Lucky Charms.

Despite his best efforts, David still doesn't completely break through Dennis' defenses and finds it hard for himself to move forward with anything, whether it's the book with the fast approaching deadline, resolving the death of his fiancee or connecting with a kid he hoped he could understand and help.

There are easy resolutions for stories like these, and maybe Martian Child eventually winds up there, planting a flag in a bedrock of sappiness, but it does so only as a last resort. Director Menno Meyjes and writers Seth Bass and Jonathan Tolins are clearly in favor of keeping Dennis a Martian child as long as possible, and the unbelievable work by Coleman, then only nine years old, is just heartbreaking.

Cusack has found new life, taking the kind of roles that allow him to keep those things we like about him as an actor while exploring new territory. He's vulnerable in Martian Child, but it's unlike his vulnerabilities in Say Anything, Being John Malkovich or High Fidelity. It's something new, kind of like he's a child again.