BLESS THE CHILD
Review by John Beachem
* * 1/2
Directed by: Chuck Russell Written by: Cathy Cash Spellman (novel), Thomas Rickman
Maggie O'Connor (Kim Basinger) is a child psychologist whose sister, Jenna (Angela Bettis), just dropped by after a several year hiatus. Jenna is a drug addict and dumps her baby girl, Cole (later played by Holliston Coleman), in Maggie's lap and then takes off. Maggie raises the child as her own, but Cole is different than most children. Cole has strange gifts like being able to move objects and bring the dead back to life, but Maggie doesn't seem to think anything of it. After six years of raising Cole, Jenna shows up again, still drugged up, but now married to a wealthy self-help guru named Eric Stark (Rufus Sewell). Eric and Jenna want Cole back, and when Maggie refuses they take her anyway. Maggie goes to the authorities and speaks to FBI agent John Travis (Jimmy Smits), who becomes convinced that Stark is behind a series of child murders that have been taking place in the city. As it turns out, Stark is the head of a Satanic cult and believes that Cole is the world's savior, who he must convert to his evil ways. Maggie and John have only one week to track Stark down and reclaim Cole before Stark either kills her or converts her, whichever proves easier.
I don't know about you, but I'm getting a little tired of these weird, quasi-religious movies Hollywood has been throwing at us lately ("Stigmata", "End of Days", even "Dogma"). These films are usually thrillers, and somehow involve a conflict with the church and the end of the world, and some hapless fool thrown in the middle of it all. That about sums up Chuck Russell's ("Eraser") "Bless the Child". The only difference is, Russell's film is deeply religious and pro-church, while most of these films are generally anti-religion. Does that make it less irritating? Not by a long shot. I can't honestly say there is one specific thing that's wrong with "Bless the Child", it's more that there's nothing really good about it. This is the kind of movie you'll sit through, not really caring what's going on, just waiting for it to end. The kind of movie where you'll be thinking about things like doing laundry when you get home, or how much fixing your car is going to cost instead of paying attention to what's happening on screen. It's not all Russell's fault, no one could have done much with this frightfully dull script, but a lot of the blame can rest firmly on his shoulders; mainly for the languid pacing and dreary cinematography.
"Bless the Child" does go out of its way to prove one thing: Kim Basinger's Oscar for "LA Confidential" was a fluke. I've never thought of Basinger as a great actress (quite the opposite actually), and while I thought she gave a very nice performance in "LA Confidential", I didn't think it was Oscar worthy (though every one of her co-stars gave a performance worthy of an award). In "Bless the Child" she doesn't seem quite sure how to act. Half the time she's timid and unsure of herself, then she'll suddenly switch to fighting people and screaming. Rufus Sewell, who gave great performances in both "Dark City" and "Dangerous Beauty", delivers a mediocre one here. He simply seemed incapable of acting turly evil, which is (I think) how this character was supposed to be. Jimmy Smits is, well, Jimmy Smitts; likeable enough, but little more to him. Holliston Coleman isn't required to act much. All she's really asked to do is refer to herself in the third person, hug people, and smash her head against walls (don't ask me about that one, it never gets explained). Despite what both the previews and the opening credits would have you believe, Christina Ricci ("Sleepy Hollow") and Ian Holm ("The Fifth Element") show up in what amount to little more than cameos.
"Bless the Child" is a movie filled with lots of little details that simply don't work. Right from the start, when Maggie and Jenna meet up I knew I was in for a bumpy ride. The two have an argument which somehow manages to dredge up every traditional reason why movie sisters fight. Why do I say movie sisters rather than just sisters? Because movie sisters fight about things like drug use, miscarriages, ex-husbands, and anything else remotely melodramatic the writers can think of. The dialogue is fairly hammy and cheesy (I actually started thinking of a ham and cheese sandwich my mind was wandering so much), and once again writers stole that classic line from "The Usual Suspects" - "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." If that line gets stolen for use in one more cheesy movie I'm going to, well, complain some more I suppose. The fact that Chuck Russell doesn't direct too often becomes painfully obvious about fifteen minutes into the film, when he makes every mistake in the book. Russell's biggest mistake is throwing strange images at you, the picture fades to the next scene, and what happened in the last scene is never explained.
How many loose ends do you usually like your movies to have? None? Well then I'd recommend staying away for that reason alone because guess what, nothing gets explained. We never learn just who Cody is supposed to be (Savior reborn? An angel come to earth?), and we never learn what Eric Stark is hoping to accomplish by turning her to his side. His way of converting her doesn't make a whole lot of sense anyway. There's a brief hint of the last temptation of Christ in there, but Eric's idea of temptation seems to be "do this or I'll kill you". You're no doubt wondering about the special effects, because any good religious thriller (assuming one exists other than "The Exorcist") is bound to have them, right? Well, the special effects in "Bless the Child" probably would have been fairly creepy were it not for the fact that they appear to have been produced on a home computer. The score, by Christopher Young ("The Hurricane"), isn't exactly bad, it's just not used enough to make much of an impression. Russell throws the score in during the really dramatic moments, but other than that we don't hear it too often. It's obviously loud and dramatic during the film's finale, but the problem is that the finale is anything but dramatic. It's so anti-climactic I just about dozed off during it. "Bless the Child" runs a painful 110 minutes, but you'll have to decide if you want to pay eight dollars for a two hour nap. I'd recommend the film to fans of "Stigmata" (assuming they exist) and give it two and a half out of five stars.
Comments? Send to: johnbeachem@dependentfilms.net
Past reviews can be found at: http://www.epinions.com/user-elerad?public=yes or http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?John+Beachem
* * * * * - One of the best movies of the year. * * * * - Great flick, try and catch this one. * * * - Okay movie, hits and misses. * * - Pretty bad, see it at your own risk. * - See this one only if you enjoy pain.
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