Godsend

Starring: Greg Kinnear, Rebecca Romijn Stamos, Cameron Bright and Robert DeNiro.
Directed by: Nick Hamm

Bluntly speaking? Godsend reeks of the cliché, "When bad movies happen to good people." Or perhaps the dreaded K-Pax Flu struck? KPF is when big talent sits around socializing, smoking cigars and everyone forgets to read the script through to the END!

Story goes… the Duncans, Paul (Gregg Kinnear), Jessie (Rebecca Romijn Stamos) and Adam (Cameron Bright) are a refreshingly adjusted family; normal and content.

That is until the unthinkable happens to the happy unit. Jessie takes Adam (<- pun surely intended) out birthday shopping. She looks away from him for two seconds and every parent's nightmare happens - the boy is struck by a vehicle and killed. The scene is very disturbing - be warned.

Naturally the couple is completely devastated, barely able to breath. While out grieving one day Jessie's old professor, Dr. Richard "Dick" Wells (Robert DeNiro) approaches them and offers them the unthinkable…

He explains by taking a bit of Adam's DNA he can clone the child. He has the ability to bring their boy back. The "procedure" which will be done at Dr. Wells' Godsend Institute, is technically very illegal, morally debatable and just plain old creepy when you stop and ponder all that soul stuff.

We watch a bit of soul searching from the couple themselves, but perhaps blinded by sorrow and the desire to see their boy grow up, Paul and Jessie decide to commit to the experiment!

Ah, but they are in untreaded waters of science mon cheri le heretics! And while this kid may look and speak like dearly departed Adam, there's a whole lot of petrie dish shenanigans behind his baby blues…and you can count on Dr. Louis Cipher, err, I mean, DeNiro, err, I mean Wells, not being completely boy scout badge honest in the disclosure clause of their contract! (Dadadadum <- insert dramatic extra creepy music here please)

Godsend starts out superb, practically brilliant. On top of a nice cast, it has a cool 1970's horror feel - like say The Changeling or The Omen films.

Greg Kinnear, who's most definitely blossoming into a heavy cream style, multi-berried little mantort visually and actor-wise, truly shines on film. Gosh he's swell…the film's not but he sure is.

And bombshell Rebecca Romijn Stamos shows she can act a bit - she finally gets a "normal" role. Their child, played by Cameron Bright, is great. The boy's got that Damien-esque look about him - he's devilishly cute till he gets mad - then dear god is the kid unnerving.

Speaking of unnerving…what's in the H-E-double hockey sticks is up with DeNiro? What's an acting legend like this doing crapatini like this for? Bobby, Bob, Bubbie, take a vacation. Watch some of your older films (you can buy them here, try Raging Bull for a career pick-me-up), have a brandy, then call your agent and demand a real role.

Why am I so hostile towards Godsend? After investing in the film, buying into the grief that drives one to cloning, indulging the scientific faux pas…suddenly we take a sharp left, way past beyond the sea of remotely believable, we are left without a paddle of information to feed the film's newly inserted logic and end up adrift in "wha-the-?" land. It's like they ran out script and improv'd the last hour of the film - it's really that stooooopid.

Snack recommendation: Tums© - you'll need it to watch these talents flounder about.