Martian Child

“Is it okay to be like other people?”

This is the story about a little boy who just doesn’t fit in. But the question is, should he? Which is worse; trying to fit in, or being your bizarre little self? So many times people say, “just be yourself”.

Dennis is a little boy who thinks he’s from mars. He lives in a box to avoid the sunlight. He will eat nothing but Lucky Charms. He takes photos of everything, and steals passports, keys, odds and ends from strangers, because, he claims, he is doing research on our planet so he can take it back to Mars.
The story goes, a writer is brought into the situation. John Cusack writes Science Fiction. Someone thought he would be a good choice to adopt the boy and try to help him, because he can more easily touch upon the sci-fi mind of the child. He adopts the boy, and grows to love him.

At one point, Cusack is speaking to the boy, and voices aloud one of the film’s central points: In this huge, crazy universe, with the planets all rotating around the sun, and the forces of nature at work, and being such small, insignificant beings, it’s amazing to think that any two of us reach out to try to help each other. Why on earth do you need to be from Mars?
Children come to the earth, and it’s so new, it’s like they’re aliens. This is never clearer than this story of a child trying to discover the world in a way that we never thought of before. And it’s a way I believe we should all witness.

There are also a couple instances where they tease your imagination, and pull you into the alien world of Dennis’s imagination. For instance, he says he can taste color; Cusack tests him with some M&M’s, and it appears to be true. It is a very clever way of teasing our fancies, and it really adds a special dimension to the film.

It is a story about the adopting father trying to help the boy, and slowly becoming almost his playmate, but at the same time, learning more than he bargained for. If you watch the movie, I believe you will find yourself in the same fix.
Fascinating, funny, quirky, sweet… this movie is all these.

4 out of 5 stars.