USA, 2004
Director: Nick Hamm
Score: **

When Paul (Greg Kinnear) and Jessie Duncan (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) unexpectedly lose their 8-year old son, Adam (Cameron Bright) in a tragic accident, they are approached by a Dr. Richard Wells (Robert De Niro), offering them the opportunity to clone Adam (a Godsend?) and thus reunite the broken family.  Of course, moral, ethical and whatever issues are raised but all do go hunky-dory till Adam reaches his 8th birthday.  Adam imagines strange phenomena.  To add a twist, which most likely is the reason De Niro was attracted to the project, Dr. Wells has a dark secret that is yet to be revealed.

GODSEND has been advertised as a psychological thriller/drama that probes the outer-reaches of science while dealing with ethical issues.  But it turns out to be a feeble moral tale about two characters (the couple and Dr. Wells) in a typical American society squabbling over possession of the boy. The cardboard Paul and Jessie, do their token romantic stuff, argue over issues and predictably give in to the wishes of the good doctor. Dr. Wells is the typical Hollywood-type brilliant scientist, all good-at-heart till pushed to the limit. Nonetheless, their final confrontation is inevitable.

Mark Bomback’s screenplay treats cloning as a serious novel idea, though countless films have dealt with clones be it in comedic terms as in Woody Allen’s SLEEPER or as a sci-fi thriller (CLONUS).  Great lengths have been taken by director Nick Hamm to make it all believable – the huge facility the doctor works at is elaborately set up; the cloning process is explicitly explained – but the problem lies in the indecision of what kind of film GODSEND want to be.  Hamm (responsible for the recent barely acceptable British thriller THE HOLE), who has his roots in theatre, dabs into the horror genre (with a few genuinely eerie moments like when the father questions what would happen if the boy finds out the truth), family drama, moral issues but goes nowhere with any of them.  The film works best with the psychological problems faced by Adam – when he starts hallucinating or occupy twin characters.  But whatever interest that initially was generated is quickly lost as the script tackles too many concerns.  Even Niven Howie’s (LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS) spirited editing fails to help.  The result is a pretentious forgettable film that probably sounded good when first put on paper.

Review by Gilbert Seah.