I really loved this movie. I had an idea that I would like it, but also a real fear that it would be a waste of a couple of hours on a day like today when I wasn’t in any particular mood at all, let alone the happy-happy joy-joy mood I expected I’d need to be in for The Kid. It really surprised me in places.

There’s a lot of magical typical Disney stuff happens in the movie (story concerns a grumpy middle-aged man who is visited by himself aged 8, and thereby reminded of how grumpy he has become, etc), but it’s handled in a really open-minded, “make up your own mind exactly what’s going on,” kind of way by director John Turteltaub. The Kid himself, Spencer Breslin, has an appearance that first suggests he’s going to be incredibly annoying, but he turns out to be only incredibly cute, and a perfect co-star for Bruce Willis, who again reminds me that he’s actually a pretty good actor. In the last act, the movie gets pretty intensely serious and sad, one scene in particular where The Kid’s father yells at him, telling him repeatedly not to cry (this is meant to be the moment where the main character becomes the miserable old man that Willis plays). Finally, there’s one more surprise at the end, and while on another day I might easily have found the whole thing ridiculously corny, today I was just happily along for the ride.

The DVD is a nice one. I wasn’t sure if I’d listen to the commentary, but since I was renting and I doubt I’ll have the chance to listen to it again (it’s not that good that I’d buy it), I did listen, and I’m glad I did. It features The Kid himself, and he’s hilarious talking to director Turteltaub over scenes. At one point, Breslin leaves the room to go to the bathroom, and Turteltaub sounds so incredibly relieved to finally be able to talk himself without interruption, coincidentally about a rare scene in the movie which is child-free. Very funny commentary.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 26th, 2004 at 7:33 pm in Movie Reviews, unrated. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.