Martian Child (2007)

.

On Being Different

and

the Power of Acceptance and Love

David Gordan (John Cusack), a science fiction writer, is also a very lonely widower. While entertaining the idea of adopting an older childer, a perceptive social worker (Sophie Okonedo) introduces David to seven-year-old Dennis (Bobby Coleman) who isolates himself by spending daytime in a large cardboard box to protect himself against the rays of the sun. He's unable to bond with others, and seriously believes that he is from Mars and "they" will come back for him.

David is intrigued by this hard-to-place youngster. His sister Liz (Joan Cusack) discourages David from taking this child even for a period of time as a trial. She says Dennis has too many problems, but eventually, when she sees how much David relates to this boy because of David's own childhood isolation issues, she finally turns around her thinking.

The challenges are immense. It's difficult to communicate with Dennis. He steals at school and David is asked to take him to a different school because the child is just "too different." Harlee (Amanda Peet) had been David's wife's best friend since childhood and she sees how much David needs this child and this boy needs David. She has every confidence in the two being able to bond. A child psychologist (Howard Hessman) believes, too.

Meanwhile, David's literary agent (Oliver Platt) and editor (Angelica Huston) are pressing David hard for volume two of his epic tale of a Harry Potter-like boy in the realm of space. Mr. Lefkowitz (Richard Schiff), the head of the adoption board, is disturbed when he does a drop-by visit to David's home only to find David heartily encouraging Dennis to smash plates to the floor over and over again.

All I can say is that I loved this film! I laughed and I cried and I giggled and I wiped more tears and I had a lump in my throat. What an amazing young actor Bobby Coleman is, and John Cusack was certainly a perfect fit for the role of David.

When I finished watching it, I immediately called three people and told then to run right out to rent it, and in the following day, I told at least a dozen others. This is definitely a film I will buy for myself and watch over and over again.

Directed by Menno Meyjes and based on the book The Martian Child by science fiction novelist David Gerrold who tells his own true story about being the single adoptive parent of an older child who has escaped his difficult reality by deciding he's from Mars.

Rated PG for thematic elements.

My personal rating: A