BEFORE: Since I went out to see movies twice this month, I've seen a few trailers lately, and most of those upcoming movies look pretty horrible. When we saw "Into the Woods" we saw previews for "Cinderella" (clever tie-in, but ho-hum), "Jupiter Ascending" (looked like stupid Y/A mixed with sci-fi), "Paul Blart; Mall Cop 2" (why, dear God, WHY?) and "Pitch Perfect 2" (OK, I'll consider seeing that one...). When I saw "Birdman" last week, things looked even bleaker - I saw the trailers for "Run All Night" (with Liam Neeson, looked just like "Taken 4"), "Danny Collins" (Al Pacino playing a washed-up Barry Manilow-ish singer?), "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" (which seems rather unnecessary) and "A Little Chaos", about, I swear, some woman who was the landscaper at Versailles for King Louis XIV.
And you wonder why I prefer to stay home and watch old movies on TCM? Why don't I ever get to see trailers for good movies, like "Avengers: Age of Ultron"? Also, remember when there was some connection between the movie you were there to see, and the trailers they'd show you? These days, there doesn't seem to be any order to the system at all.
Unlike my programming choices, of course - where Bruce Willis carries over from "Moonrise Kingdom" and settles in for a few days.
THE PLOT: An unhappy and disliked image consultant gets a second shot at life when an eight-year-old version of himself mysteriously appears.
AFTER: This is also good timing, for a couple of reasons. First off, time travel is hot again - I just finished reading the first book I've read in...well, a long time, and that was "How to Live Safely in a Science-Fictional Universe". Without giving anything away, a man who fixes other people's time-travel mistakes gets into a loop of his own. Also, I'm watching the new "12 Monkeys" series on Syfy, though I suspect that re-watching the Terry Gilliam film (which also starred Bruce Willis) would be faster, and ultimately more entertaining.
And that's what we seem to be dealing with in "The Kid", time travel of a sort. There is the possibility that the main character is just having a breakdown and imagining that his own 8-year-old self has shown up at his house, but since other people can also see and talk to the young boy, this has to be discounted in favor of some other explanation, which the film never really bothers to provide. In a sense, this also ties in with "Birdman", which also depicted things that seemed to defy the laws of time and space, without explaining for certain if those events were imaginary, or meant to be taken literally.
The story of "The Kid" also calls to mind "A Christmas Carol", which if you think about it, was really the first appearance in literature of time travel - Scrooge is able to watch the events of his childhood unfold again, though he can't change anything. Makes sense, you can't change the past, but you can change the future, which he goes on to do. But Dickens couldn't have imagined a time machine, instead he created spirits to do the work - a true Deus Ex Machina if ever there was one.
The Scrooge-analog image consultant seen in "The Kid" is somewhat humbuggish, but more like angry and dissatisfied with his own life, even if he's unaware about exactly what's wrong with it. Only by interacting with his younger self - metaphorically getting in touch with his inner child - does he realize that he hasn't fulfilled the dreams he once had. However, as one character notes, how many people really grow up to do the things they wanted to do when they were 8? Isn't life just what happens to you while you're making other plans?
The timing of the visitation coincides with older Russell's 40th birthday (aha, midlife crisis!), and younger Rusty's 8th. At first older Russell assumes that he's supposed to help improve the younger version of himself, teaching him self-defense and self-confidence - hey, if you know where you're going to end up, it's a lot easier to get there - and anyway, if you can improve the young boy, theoretically you'll also improve the man. But remember, you can't change the past, only the future, so eventually they realize that the reverse is probably more likely, the young boy is there to help improve the man who's lost his way.
There are many reasons why this story doesn't work, why any time-travel story eventually doesn't work. First off, time travel is not possible, I've come to accept that. Except you can only travel forward into the future, and you can't control the speed. So, hey, we're all time travelers of a sort, but what we really want is flexibility, and it just ain't gonna happen. If time travel were ever invented, even far in the future, we'd have some kind of evidence of future people coming back, unless they're really crafty and they don't change anything. Similarly, you can communicate with your future self - just leave yourself a bunch of notes, like I do - but you can't answer back.
Even if you take the time travel as a given here, if little Rusty goes forward into his future and meets himself, old Russell would have all of his memories, so he'd remember traveling forward when he was a kid, and he wouldn't be so surprised when his younger self turns up one day. He'd probably have the day marked on the calendar in anticipation, because would seem pretty significant. And he'd already know what needed to be done to change his life around, because he would have been a witness to this information that was learned when he was a child visiting the future. SO, it's all an impossible muddle.
I stand by what I said yesterday, though - most kids are terrible actors.
Also starring Spencer Breslin (last seen in "The Cat in the Hat"), Emily Mortimer (last seen in "Shutter Island"), Lily Tomlin (last seen in "Admission"), Jean Smart (last seen in "Hope Springs"), Daniel Von Bargen (last seen in "Shadows and Fog"), with cameos from Dana Ivey, Chi McBride (last seen in "The Terminal"), Melissa McCarthy (last seen in "The Hangover Part III"), Jeri Ryan, Matthew Perry.
RATING: 4 out of 10 boxing gloves
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