"Martian Child": The Kid from Planet Cliche

Despite a trailer so cheesy that you could melt it and dip tortilla chips in it, the New Line drama Martian Child at least has an honorable premise at its core. At heart, this is a story about two people, a guy and a kid, who've both lost love in the past and are trying to find it again in their own quirky ways. This is the sort of simple tale that, if done right, could result in an outpouring of earnest emotions and strong performances. But the trouble with Martian Child is that it wants to be more than this and has no idea how to go about doing so, throwing on so many plot-related bells and whistles that you feel like you just got sold an entire store's housewares department when all you wanted was a butter knife.

John Cusack stars in this long-delayed picture as David Gordon, a science fiction writer who still hasn't recovered from the death of his wife. Thus, to fill the empty emotional space in his life, David, against the advice of his sister (Joan Cusack) but with the support of his deceased beloved's sister (Amanda Peet), decides to adopt a child. Almost immediately, he becomes intrigued by a boy named Dennis (Bobby Coleman) who traipses around in a big cardboard box, has a tendency to steal things, and, if you haven't figured out already from the title, firmly believes that he's a Martian on a mission to study Earth families. Having grown up as a similarly weird kid, David adopts little Dennis, the tyke's mounting eccentricities proving to be a handful but leaving David undeterred in his quest to be the best father he can be.