Godsend

It is difficult to review a movie like this without spoiling the fun. Much of the appeal comes from the various twists and turns, which ought to come as a surprise. Rated PG-13, the suspense relies mostly on what might happen. It's as if you were walking through a haunted house. The illusion is ruined if someone were to tell you that a skeleton will jump out from behind the next corner. The effects do work though, mostly because it is a child who encounters them.

The premise is that a couple, Jessie and Paul (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos and Greg Kinnear) lose their 8-year-old son, Adam, in one of those freak car accidents that every parent fears. They cannot conceive again but she can carry a child to term. Enter Richard Wells, MD, played with chilling calm by Robert DeNiro, with a deal with the devil. He can clone the boy if they act quickly. However, due to the illegality, they have to move to the town where his clinic is and cut ties with family. The people in the new area, unaware of the first Adam, will think it's an ordinary in vitro. The setup helps the story later, explaining their unnatural loyalty to the doctor and why there is no extended family to help them.

Romijn-Stamos, as Jessie, does a fine job but she is handed the weakest character of the bunch. Desperate to keep her child the second time, she turns to Wells or her husband, depending on who's pushing the hardest. She seems unable to do much beyond twist in the wind. Whenever something goes wrong, which is often, she screams, cries, and occasionally collapses to the floor.

Kinnear has the toughest part and pulls it off. He is the one who has to battle against the evil. He has and displays the same concern and desperation that his wife does, yet he also battles suspicion and the need to find out what is going on. Kinnear does a fine job showing us the bewildered, torn parent in the midst of chaos.

DeNiro as Wells is marvelous. His ability to deliver a line coldly, even while portraying the supportive doctor and friend, gives the movie its center. One has to wonder why a brilliant doctor, having successfully produced the first human clone, would want to keep it a secret, and why he would not try to do it again. The answer to that question does not disappoint.

Article Author: Justene Adamec

Justene practices law in downtown LA. To chat about this or other topics, IM Justene.

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