Martian Child.

John Cusack "receives fierce competition in the 'aw' department in Martian Child from a golden retriever (the noble Bud) and a wee killer called Dennis (Bobby Coleman), who arrives in a cardboard box literally marked 'Fragile' and 'Handle With Care,' and who comes equipped with trembling lips and a load of cute," warns Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. "But Mr Cusack is not one to relinquish the spotlight without a fight. Like WC Fields he takes the challenge presented by animals and children seriously."

"The primary obstacle to enjoying any moment of Martian Child... is Dennis, a little creature whose habits never feel like anything other than groan-worthy screenwriter contrivances aimed at cheaply eliciting audience waterworks," writes Nick Schager at Slant.

"[W]hat's most remarkable about Martian Child is how good Cusack is, particularly in a role that could bring out the worst kind of saccharine preciousness in even the best actor," writes Salon's Stephanie Zacharek. "Cusack doesn't melt under the movie's demands; he stands up to them. He's a counterweight to its more heartwarming impulses, and his coolness makes the story more moving rather than less."

"There's a danger to Cusack growing up, and it lingers in nearly every frame of his latest vehicle," writes Eric Kohn at the Reeler. "Gone are the days when this talented actor could say anything and charm audiences. In derivative stuff like this, Cusack would be better off saying nothing."

At the AV Club, Scott Tobias notes that it's odd that this would come out not too long after Lars and the Real Girl: "Both movies are about characters who nurse impossible fantasies, and both feature sane adults who decide the best course of action is to accept those fantasies at face value, trusting the painful emotions behind them will work themselves out over time. In Lars, that strategy comes from a collective insanity that could only happen in a magical place called IndieLand, while in Martian Child, there's some wisdom involved. But both films are too schmaltzy, and worse, fatally obvious about the roots of their fantasists' problems."

"Martian Child would like to be About a Boy (Who Thinks He's a Martian), but, disappointingly, it doesn't even come close," writes Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times.

"Martian Child certainly isn't much fun, unless you were desperately awaiting K-PAX with a kid instead of Kevin Spacey," writes Robert Wilonsky in the Voice.

But Omar Mouallem, writing in the Vue Weekly, finds "it's not humanly possible to dislike Martian Child."

"Butting heads directly with the animated, aggressively marketed Bee Movie, and the following week with Warner Bros' Fred Claus, not to mention Disney's PG-rated Enchanted looming in the middle-distance, Martian Child will likely have a tough time finding theatrical footing," warns Brent Simon in Screen Daily.

Posted by dwhudson at November 2, 2007 8:07 AM