Bless the Child Rating: Release Date: 19 August, 2003 Retail Price: $9.98 OUR Price: $9.98 You SAVE: $0.00! Cast: Kim Basinger Jimmy Smits Rufus Sewell Christina Ricci Complete Cast (10 total)

Bless the Child Reviews

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Holliston Coleman Does a Nice Job
It takes a brave person to willingly view a film with a 95% "rotten" rating on the "Tomatometer" but when the cast includes Angela Bettis, Christina Ricci, and Ian Holm you begin to get interested. Then when the same critics are overwhelmingly praising an exercise in excess like the new "King Kong", you begin to wonder if their judgment can be trusted about a film like "Bless the Child". Not that "Bless the Child" is a small independent film, it had a $40 Million budget although there is little sign much of that money actually made it onto the screen; except that the DVD has far more extensive special features than some low-budget production.

Anyway, if you are curious enough to view "Bless the Child" and if your expectations are modest, you should find it a pleasant surprise. Not because of Ricci (who has only two scenes although both are done well). Or because of Holm (who makes an extremely short appearance of little consequence). And not because of Bettis, although she gets a fair amount of screen time and has one especially good scene at the start of the film. And not because of top billed Kim Basinger and Jimmy Smits, who give competent if unexceptional performances.

The real star is young Holliston Coleman (best known as the "Me" in the television movie "Miss Lettie and Me") as six year old Cody. Director Chuck Russell (The Mask," "Eraser") gets a restrained but glowing performance from Coleman as a six-year-old savior sent by God to restore mankind's faith. At the start of the film, a strung-out Bettis brings then 9-day old Cody for a long over-due visit with older sister Maggie, a NYC psychological nurse. Once Maggie starts fussing with the baby, Bettis sneaks out, leaving Cody behind to be raised by Maggie.

At first it is thought that Cody is autistic but when she starts resurrecting dead birds and performing small scale miracles her Aunt Maggie (Basinger) begins to realize that she is something else. Without the right actress and the right level of performance this whole idea would be truly awful, but Coleman deftly alternates between playful and serious, giving the character a believability that has to be seen to (dare we say it) be believed.

The suspense is provided by a self-empowerment guru named Eric Stark (Rufus Sewell), who is actually an agent of the devil and intends to kill Cody if he cannot turn her to the dark side. Stark first appears about midway into the film, which begins to go steadily downhill from that point.

There are a couple of good thrills (including a bedroom full of rats), one great scare (the nanny's face changes suddenly and unexpectedly into that of a demon), and some lame special effects stuff that doesn't work well (Maggie's drive against the flow of traffic). In a cool and perversely funny scene Maggie threatens Eric with a gun and he says, "Are you really going to shoot me? Right here in front of Cody?" Maggie simply tells Cody to close her eyes.

Religious Escapism
Coming from a long line of religion themed thrillers and horror films, this could have been much worse. On a scale of 1 ('End of Days') to 10 ('The Omen'), this falls right in between. If you're looking for a no-brainer thriller, you've come to the right place.

Basinger plays Maggie, who's just adopted her sister Jenna's child after she ran out on her, never to be seen for six years. Jenna randomly comes back on her daughter's sixth birthday with a mysterious man who appears to be a doctor. They want to take the child, but Maggie refuses. Alas, the child is kidnapped, leading Maggie into the world of a satanic cult to figure out why the child is so important to them. Smits plays a preist turned detective helping Basinger out.

The movie is not the greatest, but it does entertain and is not as bad as many may lead you to believe.

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