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I have a problem with a movie that any time there is supposed to be a tender or sentimental scene, soft piano music begins playing as an audio aid for me to care for the characters more. This movie, The Kid, is full of it.
Bruce Willis plays a wealthy image consultant. He's always on the phone with his secretary (Lily Tomlin), no matter where he is. He's stonefaced and nasty. Even his girlfriend/co-worker (Emily Mortimer) can't seem to get through to him.
One night, Willis is awakened by a sound. He goes downstairs and finds a toy plane he had as a child. He goes back to bed thinking it's a present from his father. He is awakened again to find a small child (Spencer Breslin) sneaking around his house. It turns out that this kid is a younger version of Willis just before he turns eight. He's also not a hallucination, as everyone can see him. Willis has to put his busy professional life on hold while he deals with his younger self.
Breslin walks around the house and calls Willis a loser because a) he doesn't own a dog b) he doesn't have a steady girlfriend c) he didn't grow up to fly airplanes. One would think that he would bitchslap the little punk. Is a loser one who drives a porsche, wears a two-thousand dollar suit, and has a home as big as a castle? This movie seems to think so. It all comes down to one point in Willis' childhood. He and Breslin have to go back in time and fix it so Willis won't be so evil when he turns fourty.
The Kid is from Disney. Just because it has a child in the movie, it thinks that it is a movie for children and family entertainment. But I really don't see why children would be interested in this movie. In truth, it is a movie for yuppies who have children who want to recapture some moment of their youth. Breslin is such a bad actor, even for a child, that he can't do anything but stare and say his lines. There are the parts where he and Willis take their shoes off together the exact same way; but that hardly equals talant.
In all, I would have enjoyed the movie much more if Willis had just grabbed the younger version of himself and taught him how to be mean, nasty, and demanding. It would have been funny to see an eight year old kid go back to his mom and dad's with enough stock options to buy a ten bedroom house and go to school with an armed bodyguard.
At eight years old, everyone dreams of their future. But in the real world, dreaming is for losers. In the end, it's all about who has the money, power, and prestige that really matters. And no eight year old kid should take that away from anyone.
p.c.
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