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DISNEY’S THE KID
How would you do if by some magic you were confronted and evaluated by your eight year old self? So you didn’t become a missionary or an astronaut or win the gold in Olympics gymnastics? You make a six-figure salary doing what? You don’t have a dog?
That’s what happens to Bruce Willis in The Kid, a pleasant enough film. In this variation on the archetypal Scrooge fantasy, Willis is Russ Duritz, a successful but self absorbed, mean spirited Los Angeles image consultant. He’s buzzed mysteriously by an old biplane and visited by a kid with a Beatles hairdo named Rusty (Spencer Breslin).
Rusty, who has the birthmarks to prove he’s Russ at age eight, wonders why he’s an adult “loser” who’s “jetless, dogless and chick-less.” The boy says, “We have to change.”
After some disbelief, Russ gets the message. Moral reform is key to this script by promising newcomer Audrey Wells (Guinevere). The hero begins to fix his life on his 40th birthday.
Actor Willis has an easy rapport with kids and chubby Breslin is cute-plus. This nerdy kid Russ didn’t want to be is lovable and delightful.
A few flaws loom large. We never learn why all this magic happens. Simply a benevolent providence? The stickout moral issue of manipulative public relations is raised but ignored, without even minimal scenes of repentance or truth-telling. And when Rusty and Russ revisit their childhood together, the crucial conflicts are pat and unconvincing.
Director Jon Turteltaub may have lost the light touch he once had (Cool Runnings), and English actor Emily Mortimer seems miscast as the love interest. But pros Lily Tomlin and Jean Smart contribute fresh humor and charm.
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