Cusack Cracks
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MARTIAN CHILD
Running Time 106 minutes
Written by Jonathan Tolins and Seth Bass
Directed by Menno Meyjes
Starring John Cusack, Joan Cusack, Oliver Platt and Angelica Huston
This whimsical Froot Loop with the repellent title Martian Child is almost more than anyone should be asked to relate this side of a mental-hospital competency hearing. It stars John Cusack, whose most consistently reliable talent for years has been his unfailing ability to choose movies nobody wants to see, as a freaky wackjob who escapes from reality in the plots of his sci-fi novels. Widowed and lonely, he bonds with an orphan who is another freaky wackjob about 30 years younger and three feet tall, who lives in a cardboard box because he’s afraid of the sun. You see, he’s actually convinced he’s a child from Mars. Since he’s an expert in fantasy and make-believe is what he does for a living, Mr. Cusack begins adoption proceedings immediately. His sister (played by his real sister, Joan Cusack) struggles to pretend this is somehow normal, but it’s his brother-in-law I’m rooting for, when he says, “As far as I’m concerned, they’re all from Mars—at least your kid admits it.”
Moving right along. The kid refuses to eat anything but Lucky Charms, and some of the things he does probably would appeal to E.T. He can wish for a home run and it happens. He does extraterrestrial dance steps, talks in tongues and scans the skies intensely for signs of the mother ship that will take him home. Pop goes along by strapping the kid into ankle weights and gravity belts to keep him from floating away. But by the time he breaks all the dishes and sprays the kitchen walls with ketchup, you begin to wonder if the father isn’t from the red planet himself.
His frustrated agent (Oliver Platt) and bitchy publisher (Anjelica Huston) are onto something here, like Harry Potter in outer space; but to their dismay, instead of turning in his next book, which is a sequel to his last book, Cusack starts writing about his little boy’s alternate universe instead. The kid tries to be normal and fit in. He learns to play baseball. But he’s really just marking time until his “mission” on the planet is over. O.K., for a while you think maybe he is from Mars, and I guess I missed the point because I couldn’t wait for him to return there. Then the questions: Is he an alien, or just a bizarre brat looking for love as a metaphor for the mystery of the universe? Mr. Cusack drags himself through it bleary-eyed, badly in need of a bathrobe.
Martian Child was directed by Menno Meyjes, who wrote the screenplay for The Color Purple, and written by the distinguished team Jonathan Tolins and Seth Bass, who penned the extraordinary The Twilight of the Golds. How could so many good people go so wrong?
Are you aware that the film is based on a book by gay science fiction writer David Gerrold and that it is based on his own experience as a single gay parent who adopted a troubled kid. I refuse to see the film because Hollywood "de-gayed" it. This could have been a positive film about a gay parent instead they chickened out. Perhaps this element may have saved the film from what it has apparently become.
I took in the film on 11/3 & really enjoyed it. I thought John Cusack's performance was excellent & that noticably he has re-created himself in new more mature roles; he is consistantly becoming a better performer with age. Perhaps it's the accumulation of life experiences he can draw on. The little boy playing the 'Martian' was endearing, though a bit contrived. I will look for this kid for future roles in the cinema.
The kid in this film is Bobby Colmeman who has was also in Must Love Dogs with John Cusack.
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OK, so this isn't the most sophisticated movie in the world, but on balance I thought the things it got really right outweighed the numerous things that induce cringes. Perhaps the most authentic and convincing scene in the whole move, Mr. Reed's barb notwithstanding, was the scene with the breaking plates and the ketchup. Did anyone notice that this is a kid with very serious issues to face, and the maybe, just maybe, having a tantrum and throwing some dishes and having a ketchup war with dad might be a way for him to access some of that frozen stuff? That one scene, seems to me,would have been symbolic of many more scenes just like it that would have been necessary to move Dennis out of that horrible place he was in, sort of the way movies will show a few quick scenes of a musician practicing to signify someone working away at their instrument eight hours a day for ten years.
On the whole, I thought that there were enough valuable bits like that to merit sitting through the awful parts like the Book signing party.