This is one of those movies that can make genre stereotypes work for it. Featuring a fine cast, solid production and a warm, entertaining story, the film is a winner.

Writing: With a screenplay based on the novel by David Gerrold (the Star Trek writer most famous for The Trouble With Tribbles), the movie already has a solid start. Granted, I haven’t read the novel it’s based on. Not yet, anyway. Regardless, it’s got pedigree. Screenwriters Seth Bass & Jonathan Tolins are relative newcomers and do a good job with the script. The story doesn’t break from genre norms all too much, but the real fun is in the details and the scenes that make up the big picture. The strange behavior aspect of the story lends itself to keeping the material entertaining.

Production: Nothing to complain about with the production quality of the film. While it’s not attempting to be flashy, preferring to stay grounded in character, it still has a bit of fun here and there with the material. It has a nice, fluid feel, as though it hadn’t been rigidly blocked or rehearsed. Given that you’ve got a child as one of the stars and somebody as improvisationally talented as Cusack, I imagine that was the result of using what you’ve got.

Cast: There’s no doubt that the true strength of this film is the cast. John Cusack and Amanda Peet are two of my favorite actors, and they do a great job. Having previously starred together in the excellent Identity, they have a nice, natural chemistry in this film. Cusack gets to channel the more reserved and odd qualities of his performances, and Peet actually plays things a bit more low key and straight than usual. Bobby Coleman, who had played the son on the sci-fi series Surface recently, does an admirable job with his role. There’s no shortage of good casting for the supporting roles, such as Oliver Platt, Richard Schiff, Sophie Okonedo and even Howard Hesseman. Then of course you’ve got the easiest casting in the world to play John Cusack’s sister. I’m referring of course to Joan Cusack.

Music: Aaron Zigman, who’se gotta be one of the busiest composers in the industry these days, does a fine job with the warm and engaging score. It’s right up his alley, and he pulls it off with ease. Like the production, it’s not particularly flashy. It’s just a warm, engaging score.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 16th, 2007 at 8:41 pm and is filed under Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.