Cast: Kim Basinger, Jimmy Smits, Rufus Sewell, Ian Holm, Angela Bettis, Christina Ricci, Yan Birch, Lumi Cavazos, Holliston Coleman
Director: Chuck Russell
Producer: Mace Neufeld
Screenplay: Tom Rickman and Clifford Green & Ellen Green
Cinematography: Peter Menzies Jr.
Music: Christopher Young
U.S. Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Satan vs. God. Evil against good. The spiritual war is at the heart of Christian mythos, but leave it to Hollywood to present it with all of the taste and intelligence of a WWF grudge match. It strikes me as inexplicable that, even in this day and age when studios will seemingly fund anything, someone greenlighted Bless the Child. I suppose the cast has something to do with it, but how a production can go before the cameras with this kind of lobotomized script defies logic. But it is August, and this is representative of the type of fare that is jettisoned into multiplexes at this time of the year.
In essence, Bless the Child is an amalgamation of ideas leeched from occult, apocalypse, and serial killer films, with more than a little injection of (of all things) Star Wars. If there's an original concept on screen during the movie's 105-minute running length, it sneaked by me. Maybe I was too busy staring agape at the bad dialogue and worse acting, or trying to figure out how much more interesting things would have been if a black-costumed James Earl Jones had been playing the part occupied by Rufus Sewell (at least the voice would have been right).
The underlying premise of Bless the Child is steeped in Christian mysticism - all that stuff about the apocalypse, the anti-Christ, the Four Horsemen, etc. This film postulates that Lucifer's agent is already on Earth, and is working behind the scenes to prepare things for his Master's coming-out party, on Easter Eve, 2000. Eric Stark (Rufus Sewell) is the founder of a popular drug rehab/self-empowerment movement called "The New Dawn", but his organization is actually the front for a Satanic cult (any similarities to Scientology are, I'm sure, purely coincidental). But God has not abandoned this world to Stark and his band of demons. To guard his cause, he has sent us his agent - a six-year old girl named Cody O'Connor (Holliston Coleman), who has been diagnosed as autistic and has the ability to light candles, move plates, and resurrect dead birds with her mind. Since birth, Cody has been cared for by her aunt, Maggie O'Connor (Kim Basinger). When Stark determines that Cody is The One for whom he has been looking, he seeks out and marries her birth mother, Jenna (Angela Bettis), then kidnaps Cody from Maggie's home. Then, informing Cody that he is now her father, Stark seeks to tempt her to give in to the power of evil and turn to the Dark Side. And, if she will not succumb like he did, she will be destroyed. Meanwhile, to further complicate matters, ex-seminary student turned FBI agent John Travis (Jimmy Smits) has been called in to investigate a series of serial killings in New York City, and his leads point him in the direction of Stark. He encounters Maggie, who is searching for Cody, and the two join forces to save the world.
For some reason, the motion picture industry enjoys portraying the so-called End Times. Back in the '70s, The Omen was popular enough to spawn two sequels. More recently, Arnold Schwarzenegger was on hand to defend mankind in End of Days. In between, there have been numerous other takes on the same basic story. From my perspective, however, this has to be one of the least interesting concepts to found a film upon - after all, in the struggle between an all-knowing, all-powerful God and an upstart angel, who's likely to emerge victorious? Sure, God sort of evens the odds by staying the background, but he's still in control. For example, whenever things get too dicey during Bless the Child, he sends down an agent to give the heroes a helping hand. This may seem like cheating, but I suppose, since he's the one who made the rules, that's just a technicality.
Most of Bless the Child is comprised of various silly chase scenes, with the participants trading off in a game of who's after whom. Maggie does most of the running - half the time, she's on the trail of Cody's kidnappers; the rest of the time, they're after her. The film goes to great lengths to obfuscate the fact that there isn't much of a story. Appearances by Christina Ricci (as a drug addict who meets a grisly end) and Ian Holm (as a maverick priest) serve no purpose beyond adding a little more star power to the cast list and padding the running length. This is one of those films where you can see the ending coming early in the proceedings, but have to sit through more than an hour of plot contrivances before the script catches up with the audience. Napping through Bless the Child's extended and repetitive midsection will only enhance your ability to tolerate this mindless drivel.
If Satan's powers on Earth are limited to what they're shown to be here, there's not much to worry about. The most impressive thing his agent can do is telekinetically remove bullets from a gun. There are numerous grotesque images of winged demons and swarming rats, but they don't do anything beyond add to the special effects budget. Stark's means of tempting Cody to turn are laughably absurd - what's a six-year old going to do with all of New York City? Then there's the final battle - the ultimate confrontation between God and Satan through their agents to determine the fate of the planet - and it all comes down to a simple gun fight. By the time the angels show up, it's all over.
From an acting standpoint, you won't find more wood this side of a lumber yard. Kim Basinger, who was lucky enough to win an Oscar for her lone accomplished performance, shows why she is no longer regarded as one of Hollywood's top talents. Jimmy Smits, late of NYPD Blue, isn't exactly breaking into new territory, so it's inexplicable why his energy level is so low. British actor Rufus Sewell looks consistently bored by the project, offering an interpretation of his character that is both lackluster and uncharismatic. Perhaps a little heavy breathing, a la Darth Vader, would have helped. The only one who shows any enthusiasm is young Holliston Coleman.
The director guilty of foisting this upon us is Chuck Russell, who previously helmed The Mask and Eraser. His work here, which is technically competent but soulless and uninspired, is unlikely to elevate him onto anyone's A-list. To his credit, he comes up with a couple of effective sequences - a nightmarish bedroom tableau reminiscent of Willard and a wrong-way car ride into heavy traffic. Neither, however, offers more than a brief distraction from the waste of time that comprises the rest of this film. In the end, it's possible to concisely describe the philosophy of Russell and everyone working with him: curse the audience with Bless the Child.
© 2000 James Berardinelli