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>> GODSEND (2004)

Starring: Gregg Kinnear, Robert DeNiro, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos and more ...
Director: Nick Hamm
Genre: Thriller




"godsend" is an odd bird in terms of today's horror genre. instead of telling a tale of plauge-like diseases or vampire attacks, it is inspired by a story in the headlines everyday: cloning. the basic set-up is quite simple: a grieving couple are contacted by a brilliant, yet reclusive researcher who agrees to clone their recently-killed child, but the "new" version of their son may hold deadly secrets. once the "new" child passed the age he was supposed to be dead, he experienced nightmares and weird behaviors. his parents afraid that he might have had recalled about his previous life when he died after his 8th birthday. but apparently, it was more than that. honestly, i was expecting that this would be a horror movie that the kid was haunted by his own soul calling him to go back to where he belongs, dead. but as many hollywood movies who always find the logic in every stories, the reasoning behind the nightmares that haunts him had to be explained according to the logic that we can all relate to, aside from just the pure "ghost" stories. and that's how it got me so disappointed on the entire movie.

nick hamm, the filmmaker behind the underrated chiller "the hole", fills the film with unique camera angles and wonderfully-innovative dream sequences, but does have much trouble finding a pace. hamm seems to be unsure whether he's making the "thirteen ghosts" remake or "unbreakable". robert deniro (in an odd choice of roles), rebecca romijn, and the vastly underrated greg kinnear all turn in wonderful genre performances, but the screenplay is not the second coming. it doesn't allow much room for shining performers to sparkle. it's filled with "bad kid"-cliches and plods around for over an hour and a half looking for a proper ending (which it never finds), and lacks any sense of a coherent story.

"godsend" is enhanced by the performances. kinnear has a natural leading-man core of determination and grit that his earlier comedic roles have overlooked, while romijn-stamos is a warm and human maternal presence, something her previous jewel-thief and mutant-supervillain roles have denied her. i've always thought that she is a great actress, she really can act, but somehow still struggling to find that character that can really bring out the best in her. de niro is also a more complicated presence than you'd think.
interestingly, the most captivating performance in the film comes from cameron bright, the newcomer picked to play both versions of adam. as "godsend" moves through its plot, bright's cool, collected performance has to alternate between confusion and mania, sympathetic confusion and blank-eyed fearsomeness, and he pulls it off; in fact, bright is so strong that he rises above the screenplay. bomback's twists and turns aren't so wild as to throw you out of the movie, but they do get a little jarring; a bit more script and dialogue might have cushioned their shock.

while it's pretty much cold shyamalan left-overs, it still has moments of chilling charm, and would not be bad to put on your queue for a cold halloween night. and, for the film geeks out there, are you seriously going to miss scorsese's #1 go-to guy playing a mad scientist?! i doubt it. :)

>> rated by :: sLesTa | [ ]

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