ViewGuide

Created Feb 21, 2008 12:19AM PST • Edited Feb 21, 2008 12:19AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Good 3.0

   Sweet movie, engagingly performed, a classic tale well told: an adult set in his ways finds true meaning after becoming a parent. Yet the movie has a modern twist: the child, an oddball, is emotionally damaged as a result of abandonment, a circumstance that surely isn’t new, though the popular recognition of it is (more about this in the Circumstantial Reality commentary below).

4. Acting

   Good 3.0

   Nice performance by John Cusack in a role that suits his low key style. Youngster Bobby Coleman uses his strangled voice to great effect.

5. Male Stars Good 3.0

6. Female Stars Good 3.0

7. Female Costars Good 3.0

8. Male Costars Good 3.0

10. Film

    Good 3.0

11. Direction Very Good 3.5

12. Play Good 3.0

13. Music Good 3.0

14. Visuals Good 3.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.0

17. Sex Innocent 1.0

18. Violence Gentle 1.0

19. Rudeness Polite 1.0

21. Reality

    Natural 1.0

22. Circumstantial Natural 1.0

    Nice depiction of attachment disorder. From Wikipedia: "Attachment disorder is a broad term intended to describe disorders of mood, behavior, and social relationships arising from a failure to form normal attachments to primary care giving figures in early childhood, resulting in problematic social expectations and behaviors. Such a failure would result from unusual early experiences of neglect, abuse, abrupt separation from caregivers after about six months but before about three years, frequent change of caregivers or excessive numbers of caregivers, or lack of caregiver responsiveness to child communicative efforts."

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0