Cusack is equally strong as a father figure, and Dennis is played by Bobby Coleman in an equally and surprisingly strong performance. Though small and feeble, Coleman never looks like he's trying to ellicit sympathy or appear too cutesy. On the contrary, he nails just the right amount of Dennis's offbeat nature; one of the best scenes (again, with no dialogue) is when Dennis and David do a Martian dance together.

The film isn't too deep or original (oddly enough, it lifts a scene involving a dog almost beat-for-beat from July's evil-kid movie Joshua), but it does a lot of things right, which makes it hard not to like. Sure, there are more "important" movies out there, but I bet American Gangster won't give you nearly as good of a warm, fuzzy feeling. And I can promise you The Game Plan won't, either.

Movie Grade: B+

Synopsis:

The romantic drama Martian Child stars John Cusack as a recently widowed science fiction writer who forms an unlikely family with a close friend (Amanda Peet) and a young boy he adopts that claims to be from Mars. The new couple ignores some sage parenting advice from the widower's sister (Joan Cusack) and gets more than they bargained for when a series of strange occurrences lead them to believe that the child's claim may be true.