D.A.R.Y.L. Reviews

Unbelievable and unbearably dull, D.A.R.Y.L. opens with a car-and-helicopter chase in the Appalachian mountains. A 10-year-old boy, Barret Oliver, is pushed from a speeding automobile; then the car plunges off a cliff. An old couple finds the boy and takes him to a local orphanage. When questioned about who he is, Oliver can tell doctors only his name, Daryl. Mary Beth Hurt and Michael McKean are a childless couple who offer Oliver a foster home. They are overjoyed to have him but are surprised by some of the boy's strange habits. And then a couple claiming to be Oliver's parents turn up to collect the boy. Hurt and McKean are suspicious, however, because of Daryl's unemotional response to the couple. D.A.R.Y.L. is a bland, lifeless story. Overall, the film feels like an average made-for-television feature with an indifferent directorial style. Younger children should find D.A.R.Y.L. fairly entertaining, but this is barely tolerable for anyone else.