Film Review: The Kid (Disney's The Kid, 2000)

12 months ago (Edited)

(source: tmdb.org

Reaching the round number of years is used as benchmark for people to assess successes and failures in their lives. Protagonist of The Kid, 2000 film directed by Jon Turtletaub, has, at least superficially, good reasons to be pleased with himself. Russ Duritz (played by Bruce Willis) is days from his 40th birthday and looks like it has it all – career of image consultant in Los Angeles and large number of wealthy and influential clients that brought him luxurious villa and expensive cars. But deep inside Russ is unhappy because he lacks real friends, which turned him into cynical misanthrope, made him estranged from his father and acting badly towards his loyal secretary Janet (played by Lily Tomlin) and long suffering girlfriend Amy (played by Emily Mortimer). Lately, some strange thing began to happen to Russ – he has visions of a red biplane flying over his home. One evening his home is visited by 8-year old boy who calls himself Rusty (played by Spencer Breslin). After some time it turns out that Rusty is actually Russ while he was 8 years old. Russ, suddenly faced with childhood version of himself that recognises his faults with brutal honesty, must reassess his life and try finding a way to correct mistakes he made.

The Kid was made by Disney at the time when the studio was still associated primarily with family entertainment and, as such, it was intended for younger audiences. Script by Audrey Wells mixes infantilism and sentimentality in the way that would make Spielberg’s films look like heavy art dramas. Yet, the film was directed by Jon Turtletaub, director who had many ups and downs in his careers. While his previous film Instinct was incredibly awful, The Kid is surprisingly good. He uses Wells’ script well, trying to tell his fairy tale from two different perspectives, allowing it to be enjoyed both by children and adults. Conflict between innocent world of fantasy inhabited by children corrupt real world inhabited by adults is illustrated in the way two version of Russ sees themselves – for adult Russ his younger self is nothing more than whining fat boy who was bullied by everyone in school, while Rusty sees his older self as loser who, despite all his material wealth, never achieved anything he had dreamed of in his childhood.

The concept works well because of excellent casting. Bruce Willis, who had series of interesting roles in late 1990s and early 2000s, is very good while playing tycoon in existential crisis. Young Spencer Breslin, on the other hand, tries very hard to look like obnoxious brat, light years away from cuteness that Macaulay Culkin promoted for child actors in 1990s; his performance gives this fantasy film a touch of realism that would allow it to connect to otherwise cynical and unreceptive viewers, making The Kid more humane in the process. The rest of cast is also good, which includes always reliable Lily Tomlin and Jean Smart in the small role of television anchor. British actress Emily Mortimer, on the other hand, isn’t that effective in thankless role of Russ’ girlfriend, a character introduced, in all likelihood, for the sole purpose of adhering to Hollywood conventions. However, even with such flaw, The Kid had decent results at the box office and most who watch this film today would have reasons to believe that the audience’s original verdict was correct.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)