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Martian Child

Review By: Michael Dance
michaelmdance@gmail.com

Martian Child is definitely one of John Cusack's "light" films; he's firmly in his sensitive-guy mode in this harmless and well-meaning story about a father and his adopted son. So far this year, Cusack has proved he's still a draw at the box office with 1408 and will shortly grab some of the best reviews of his career with Grace is Gone, the Sundance hit that's out this December. Martian Child proves to be something of a placeholder in between these higher-profile films, but it's not without its charms.

Cusack plays David, a widower and sci-fi novelist who's just written a popular kids book that his publisher, dreaming of "Harry Potter in space," wants him to write a sequel to. He and his wife were planning on adopting before she died two years ago, and, doubtful about his ability to do it without her, politely tells the social worker (Sophie Okonedo) at nearby orphanage that he's not interested.

But while he's there, he meets Dennis - a strange, whisper-prone little boy who claims he's from Mars and hides in a box because the sun is more powerful on Earth. Seeing a little of his own nerdy, outcast former self in the boy, he keeps returning and eventually adopts him. Hopefully that's not a massive surprise.

The film could either follow the route of a cutesy father/son movie, or play up the Martian angle and become a K-PAX ripoff. It goes for the first angle. David and Dennis slowly warm up to each other, of course, and the movie ultimately becomes about whether we should try to fit in with normal folks or embrace our inner outcast.

We all know the answer should be the second choice, but Martian Child is not so simple-minded as to just become an anti-conformist movie. Sure, you should protect your individuality and not just blend in with the masses, but that's a lot harder in practice, especially for a kid who fervently believes he's actually an alien, and especially for a new father who doesn't want to lose his son back to child services, here represented by Richard Schiff, wisely underplaying his role to avoid being a villain.

There are no villains in this movie. Not Schiff's character, not David's goofy agent (Oliver Platt) or disapproving sister (Joan Cusack, of course). While the cast is varied, the film's firm interest is where it should be, in David and Dennis's burgeoning relationship. Oddly enough, this makes a romantic subplot with an old friend played by Amanda Peet even stronger; without any big moments and barely any screen time, the relationship is superbly charming in its understatement, allowing the subtext-laden performances by Peet and Cusack to fill in gaps that dialogue couldn't hope to convey.

Cusack is equally strong as a father figure, and ...