Movie Reviews

Disney's The Kid

28 Sept 2000

The Kid - sorry, "Disney's The Kid", to use the full title. It is certainly a Disney film, the type of children's comedy-fantasy that they used to make some years ago, usually starring Dean Jones or Kurt Russell. It seems fitting that the fantasy of The Kid involves time travel, because that's exactly what Disney is doing.

To an extent, it works, and this is partly due to Bruce Willis. Seriously! Willis is one of Hollywood's most misunderstood superstars. He has often been called a limited actor, but whenever he plays against type, the movie itself (Blind Date, Death Becomes Her, The Story of Us) happens to be a dud. OK, The Sixth Sense was different, but there he was upstaged by the story, the ambience and of course, Halley Joel Osment.

So it is with some courage that Willis again co-stars with a young boy. Russ (Willis) is confounded to meet himself at age seven, when he was Rusty, a chubby, bumbling oaf played by Spencer Breslin. Of course, it is an even greater shock for Rusty, who sees that, nearing 40, he has become a loveless, self-seeking jerk, who hasn't even taken wise financial advice from AMP like most good future selves.

The concept is explored with a little more depth than Disney knockabout comedies of yore, as Rusty reminds Russ of all he has lost. While he does not want these memories to resurface, his secretary Janet (Lily Tomlin, again playing a latter-day Thelma Ritter) and inevitable love interest, Amy (Emily Mortimer) find Rusty adorable. Amy believes that, if Russ was like that as a child, he can obviously improve. Yeah, right. The truth is: if he is in a sweet family comedy like this, he will definitely improve.

Kids would love the humour of this film, which is neither tasteless nor forced. They might be less impressed by the cloying sentimentality that threatens to overtake the second half, but Audrey Wells' story (combined with Jon Turteltaub's light direction) almost makes up for that.

Through it all, Willis gives a nice performance, alternatively very funny and surprisingly sensitive. He is not a great actor, perhaps, but there is more to him than the Die Hard persona lets us believe.