Godsend
Paul and Jessie Duncan have lost their beloved eight year-old son Adam in a tragic accident. As they are arranging for his burial, Dr. Richard Wells, approaches with the incredible offer to clone Adam, essentially bringing back their boy and reuniting their broken family. Despite the many legal, ethical and moral issues raised by the offer, the grieving couple, after much soul searching, accept Wells’ proposal, placing them in a sort of Faustian pact with the doctor. But to the Duncans, the secrecy Wells demands is insignificant compared to the hope that their son will again have the chance to grow up. The couple moves to the small town of Riverton, home of Wells’ impressive Godsend Fertility Clinic, where the stem cells carrying Adam’s DNA are implanted in Jessie’s womb and where Adam will be born and raised for the second time. Adam’s new life follows a comfortable and, to Paul and Jessie, predictable pattern, until he reaches his eighth birthday and virtually begins living on borrowed time.The parents have placed their complete trust in Dr. Wells, but now questions are raised and they start to wonder: just how far did he really go? Did he settle for simply playing God? Once they unravel the horrific truth, Paul and Jessie Duncan will have to come to terms with what they have done, and what has been done to their family.
Watching Godsend compares to eating a gallon of fudge-filled chocolate ice cream minutes before going to bed. You know it’s bad for you, but the experience is tons of fun. Soon enough, though, the gooey dessert stops tasting so good. By the time you near the bottom of the container, you can’t even justify why you continue to swallow spoonfuls, but you keep eating despite the fact that it doesn’t make sense to continue.
That also explains director Nick Hamm’s jackhammer approach to his material. He knows he’s working with a cheesy campfire story, the kind best whispered to terrified boy scouts in the dead of night. But he’s sadly unaware of when enough is enough, and his final act becomes a series of ludicrous scientific explanations offset by cheap jolts to our nervous system.
Robert De Niro and Greg Kinnear should know better, but that doesn’t stop them from playing a deranged gene therapy specialist and a grieving father, respectively. Following the death of their eight-year-old boy Adam (creepy Cameron Bright), biology teacher Paul (Kinnear) and his wife (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) accept an offer from Dr. Richard Wells to produce a clone of their child using the late boy’s DNA. The experiment is a success, even if the boy starts to show signs of psychological trouble when he reaches the age at which his previous incarnation bit the dust.
What can we say about Godsend? The acting is hammy, the story’s riddled by credibility gaps, and the technical aspects are dreary. In other words, it’s a perfect B-movie horror film, except that very little happens at a very slow pace. The PG-13 rating guarantees sugar-free scares. The science at play isn’t weighty enough to fill a beaker. And Adam’s visions occasionally tingle a spine, but can’t scare the looks of boredom that hang over the cast’s faces.
If anything, young Bright keeps us engaged. He’s scary looking even before he’s turned into a troubled clone. He’s a cross between the kid in The Omen and Chucky from the Child’s Play movies. His glassy stare might make the audience think he’s sleepwalking through this role. Perhaps he picked up the technique watching De Niro on the set.
A clone, a clone, my kingdom for a clone.
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