The Kid Reviews

Bruce Willis gets in touch — literally — with his inner child in this manipulative but fitfully entertaining Twilight Zone-ish comedy of redemption. You'll laugh, you'll cry, but when it's over you'll feel guilty about it. The premise is promising: What if you could meet up with your 8-year-old self? That's exactly what happens to Hollywood image consultant Russ Duritz (Willis), a cynical SOB who comes home one night to find titular tyke Rusty (Spencer Breslin) in his living room. It soon becomes obvious to both of them that Rusty is in fact Russ as a child, somehow unstuck in time and not particularly happy about what he sees. Though Russ is successful by adult standards, he doesn't have a wife or a dog or much care for airplanes: "I grow up to be a loser!" is the kid's verdict. Screenwriter Audrey Wells hasn't completely worked out the metaphysics of all this, although she gets off enough good lines that you probably won't mind until a third act that gets shamelessly melodramatic before the never-in-doubt happy ending. Will Russ become a better person? Hey, this is Disney! Fortunately, the performances are sharp all around; Willis demonstrates his usual killer comic timing, Breslin is appealing, Lily Tomlin is a pleasure as Russ's perpetually put-upon secretary and Jean Smart almost steals the picture in a small but dramatically crucial role as a smarter-than-you'd-expect TV newswoman. Fans of Star Trek: Voyager's Jeri Ryan will be disappointed that she's only on-screen for some five seconds (as a guest on a cable talk show); fans of Jackie Wilson's classic "Higher and Higher," however, will no doubt be pleased at its exceptionally effective use in the film's final scene.