Martian Child Critic Reviews

An occasionally schmaltzy but likable story of healing and redemption.Read the full review

Those who stick with Martian Child won't entirely avoid mush, but they will find terrific performances.Read the full review

Knockout performances by John Cusack and child actor Bobby Coleman help legitimize a whimsical but sententiously moralizing script.Read the full review

One soggy slab of sentimental uplift, but it doesn't pretend to be anything else, and there's some honor in that.Read the full review

It's hard to say what, aside from novelty, is gained by having the boy believe he's from Mars, because the core emotion in the film comes from the simple, common premise of an adoptive father and son trying to forge a life together.Read the full review

The problem with Martian Child is that it wants to be a story about outcasts, but Dennis doesn't come off as a cute little rebel.Read the full review

The movie leaves no heartstring untugged. It even has a beloved old dog, and you know what happens to beloved old dogs in movies like this. Or if you don't, I don't have the heart to tell you.Read the full review

In drama, and just about everything else, almost is never enough. Which is why Martian Child, about the growing bond between an adult and child, never reaches us.Read the full review

Martian Child wants to make us cry. It nearly made me gag. This is an exercise in shameless and inept emotional manipulation.Read the full review