Godsend

After losing their son, Adam (Cameron Bright), to a freak accident, Paul (Greg Kinnear) and Jessie Duncan (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), are approached by Dr. Richard Wells (Robert De Niro), with a risky and illegal idea--to try "replacing" Adam with a clone.

In my way of looking at ratings, 7s are Cs. They tend to do as many things wrong as right. Godsend has some admirable script characteristics, a good to great cast and some very good technical aspects. But it also has negative script characteristics and some questionable directing and editing.

Overall, I believe Godsend is worth watching, so let's look at the positive points first. It's rare that filmic science fiction--and this is just as much as science fiction film as a thriller or horror film--tries to tackle "hard science" as exposition and motivation. Although Godsend also mixes some strong fantasy elements into its "twist" and the consequences that lead to the film being a thriller/horror picture, the basic idea is one rooted in actual genetics. De Niro is given quite a few mouthfuls of science-oriented dialogue that are fairly sound, and for my money, he delivers them well.

I'm a big fan of De Niro's, so I tend to be gracious in my evaluation of his work. But I could see where some viewers less enamored with De Niro overall might find his performance here questionable. It's certainly a bit different than normal, being oddly restrained and almost emotionless for much of the film. For me, that approach fit the character, given his profession and eventual revelations about his personality. The other three principles--Kinnear, Romijn-Stamos and Bright--were good in my view, but again I can see where some viewers could interpret their performances negatively. To me, however, all of the obvious problems stem from direction and editing, not the actors' work.

The biggest problem seems to stem from director Nick Hamm's comments about the horror/thriller genre. He has stated, "what was interesting to me about Godsend was that the horror and the suspense had nothing to do with anything supernatural or spiritual". Hamm isn't a very big fan of the fantasy aspect of horror, which to me, translates into not being a very big horror fan. This led to trying to create a horror film where suspense arises out of realist drama and psychological situations. The realist drama in Godsend tends to be very slow and relatively uneventful--just as one might expect from someone not really wanting to make a horror film. Psychological horror is barely approached. There just isn't enough that happens. There are two potential villains, but neither does much. It would be very difficult to call either "evil".

Kinnear and Romijn-Stamos aren't given enough to work with. They don't have anything very meaty to react to. Hamm seems too afraid to leave realist drama territory, at least in terms of the overall plot/action. That makes some of their "horrified" reactions seem shallow or false. Worse, Hamm doesn't seem to know how to cut horror films very well. Scenes go on far longer than they should, and occasionally almost seem as if we're seeing a bit of the footage either before Hamm said "Action" or after he called "Cut". A prime example of this is the scene near the end when Romijn-Stamos is walking through woods toward a shed.

Godsend is also one of the few cases where copious DVD extras may have hurt the film more than helped. The DVD contains four alternate endings, averaging about 12 minutes long each. These occasionally deviate strongly from the theatrical ending, but none seem quite satisfying (all of the more nihilistic endings that Hamm described on his commentary but which apparently weren't shot would have done the trick for me; I also liked the filmed tag suggesting a sequel). They all tend to drag on, an impression that isn't helped by the lack of a score and a sound effects soundtrack.

Also curious, given Hamm's dislike of the fantasy aspects of genre films, is the fact that the crux of the "twist" in Godsend is extremely loopy. What's happening with Adam makes little sense from a realistic/scientific standpoint, and how it happened just isn't possible. Of course, I'm not averse to fantasy, and I don't subtract points for elements in film that are wildly divergent from our beliefs and understanding of the actual world. But if Hamm is going to abandon realism when it comes to important plot points, why not abandon it wholesale, so that we can maybe see a film that deserves an A instead?

This film to me was pretty good. The performances were strong, it had enough jumpy parts to have me screaming, and the plot was surprising. This is one of the few horror movies I've seen lately that, instead of slashing and slicing its way through a pointless gore fest (which are fun by the way, just not great movies), is one that you may actually still be talking about by next week.

Starring Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Greg Kinnear, and Robert DeNiro, Godsend is the chilling thriller about cloning. Jessie (Stamos) and Paul (Kinnear) Duncan are a happily married couple with an 8 year old son. One day their son is tragically killed when he is hit by a car. The devastated couple are then approached by Dr. Richard Wells (DeNiro), who claims he can help them by cloning to make an exact copy of their late son. Months later the Duncans are a family again with their new baby. Everything is going fine- until Adam reaches his 8th birthday, the time when the original Adam was killed. Suddenly it is a race to help their son while trying to survive before it's too late.

This gripping thriller is a fun yet interesting film to watch with your friends. I thought it was overall a good movie with a great cast.

*** out of 4

What can I say about Godsend that hasn't already been said? Probably not much. It was just so...blah. I'm convinced that there could have been a good movie here. I mean Greg Kinnear, Rebecca Romijn, and Robert Deniro! Come on! This should have been a much better film. The premise was good: a couple lose their only son and are given a chance to bring him back through the possibly amoral process of cloning. If they would have listened to Jud Crandall they would have realized that "sometimes dead is better." It was just terribly hard to sit through and the ending was really lame. I have to blame the writer. You know why? Because there are 4 alternate endings on the DVD and they all suck too. Either he just didn't know how to end it or perhaps the studio wasn't pleased. Either way, it's completely avoidable.

Aside from a modestly effective twist near the end of the movie regarding the real identity of the child "Adam," this was a bland movie pretty much the whole way through. "Adam" applies to two characters, actually. The first being the child killed in a car accident near the beginning of the movie, and the second being his "replacement." After the first Adam's death, his parents are approached by a famous doctor (played by Robert De Niro in one of his more forgettable performances) who offers to use the knowledge that he's gained through laboratory experiments to clone Adam. The result is pretty much what you'd expect in this kind of movie. The new Adam seems to have memories of his previous life and seems from the beginning just a little "off." You realize that there's more going on here than meets the eye - the figure of Zachary (the boy in Adam's dreams) really doesn't seem to connect with the story, but to me the disconnect was so great that I settled for remaining confused rather than even trying to connect Zachary with anything. The movie tries to frighten with assorted chills, but never really succeeds in that regard. The twist (as I mentioned above) is modestly effective (I hadn't seen it coming) but everything that came before was so bland that I really didn't care by the time the twist came out. The ending was too open ended - there were at least two possibilities left open for continuing the story in a sequel that just seemed too wide open. Fortunately, the sequel never came. I'd have appreciated a bit more closure to this.

This is a mediocre movie at best. I always give a bit of extra credit for a twist that catches me off guard, but it's still mediocre.

The picture concerns a young couple (Greg Kinnear and Rebecca Romijin Stamos) who after the death their son (Cameron Bright) by accident are convinced by a doctor (Robert de Niro) to be cloned and then, years later his rebirth , strange events happen . The storyline has a twisted plot and at the final there are extraordinary surprises. From the film presentation to the end the tension and intrigue are continued .

The motion picture blends terror , suspense , strong emotions , shocks and is slightly slow-moving and that's why it is a little boring. Besides, being mostly developed at interior scenarios , without barely outdoors . In the picture there's a spooky and creepy atmosphere with a lot of screams , shocks and a scary musical background . The yarn takes ideas from ¨Sixth sense¨ and ¨Hide and seek¨(also with Robert de Niro and in similar interpretation) . The acting by main actors is good , but there are scarcely secondary actors . Cinematography by Kramer Morgenthau and musical score by Brian Tyler create a ghostly and frightening atmosphere . The pic was regularly directed by Nick Hamm. The film will appeal to horror enthusiasts and Robert de Niro fans . Rating: average but passable.