(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from The Kid. We are also briefly shown an image of a news report revealing Bruce Willis developing aphasia)
Doug (vo): We got some real bummer news about Bruce Willis this year, and so, I felt it only necessary to look at a film a lot of people say was really good, The Kid...or at least, I thought it was a lot of people. (The Rotten Tomatoes page for the movie is shown with only 60% of audiences liking it and no critical score) Huh, I heard a lot of folks saying they really like this flick, but I guess the majority of people are kind of on the fence about it. I don't know, it always looked like a really clever idea, I just assumed it was really great. And after seeing it...eh, I can kind of see where some folks would be turned off, but by the time I got to the end, I'm sorry, I was putty in this movie's hands.
Story[]
Doug (vo): Bruce Willis plays an image consultant who, you guessed it, is kind of an asshole. He's direct and to the point, doesn't really sugarcoat anything. It's a role I really wouldn’t be shocked they offered to Bill Murray first. In fact, if I had to guess, Bruce Willis probably wouldn't be the first choice I would imagine for this role, but we'll get to that in a bit. Just as his career seems to get more crowded, but his social life seems to get more and more empty, his younger self appears, played by Spencer Breslin. At first, he can't believe it and thinks he's having a nervous breakdown, but the more he just seems to be there and other people can see him, too, the more he puts together...and honestly, maybe too many other people put together too quickly...that this really is his younger self, and he has to figure out what to do in order to get him back to his timeline.
Review[]
Doug (vo): I guess I shouldn't say too much more as, eh, there's not a ton more for the majority of the film, but there are a couple little mysteries going on.
(Various footage is shown, primarily focusing on Rusty and the crop plane)
Doug (vo): For example, there's this crop plane that just keeps flying around everywhere and sometimes interacts with him. He's trying to figure out who's flying it and why he's following him. He's also obviously trying to figure out why the kid is here, and on top of that, why he doesn't remember a lot of the things that his younger self remembers. At first, he thinks, “Oh, it's just old age”, I mean, after all, he is turning 40...uh, yeah, you look great, but you were 45 when you made this...so he just assumes it's bad memory. While a good chunk of the movie does go the direction you think it's gonna go, little mysteries like that do make it interesting, and in my opinion, the payoffs are really good. The problem is, I think the movie is a little too excited to get to that payoff, and sometimes, it doesn't always set it up correctly.
(Footage focusing on the older and younger versions of Russ Duritz is shown)
Doug (vo): Bruce Willis and Spencer Breslin are really good and surprisingly very believable. When I see these two together, I actually do buy them as the older and younger self, and I didn't think I would. When I think of younger Bruce Willis, I think of 12 Monkeys, like kind of that little tough kid, like he was probably a jock or something. But this sets up he was kind of a tubby, awkward, shy kid who didn't always have all the right answers and wasn't always the coolest, and because of that, he kind of changes things, so he becomes really buff and really reserved, and, yeah, it kind of checked out. But here's the thing. Both of them do play reserved really well. Whenever Bruce Willis has to just kind of think to himself or give a little bit of a smirk or a little bit of a tear, he does it great. Breslin is also the same. I kind of feel bad because I think I made fun of him in Cat in the Hat, but, yeah, I made fun of everybody, it was a terribly directed movie, I don't blame him. But he really plays this role like an awkward, believable little kid, and he says things that awkward little kids would say, and I kind of like that he's not too quippy, especially in a Disney film. You know they would really play that up. But both of them kind of lose it when they have to go really big and really loud. Both of them have done it before convincingly, but it just doesn't feel believable here. Part of it might be the music, which is really obnoxious in this, I just wanted it to shut the hell up.
Older Russ: Call Janet just like everybody else and schedule an appointment!
(Various footage is shown)
Doug (vo): Another part could be maybe they just didn't have time for a take two or three to get it right, and another part could be the editing. I feel like there's some scenes that are missing in this. There's a moment where suddenly, he's crying, and they never really explain it, and there's this super awkward edit where they just fast forward the footage and then play it normal. It doesn't make any sense. There's a moment where Bruce Willis is really connecting with his co-worker, played really well by Emily Mortimer. This is really a thankless role and she really turns it into something, she's actually really good at that. And then, out of nowhere, he just acts like a whiny little jerk, and there is no segue into it at all. At least when the kid is around and he's screaming, “What the hell is going on?”, I get that, but when he has to act like a goofy jerk and not a reserved jerk, there's almost never a segue to it and it's not believable. Breslin is kind of the same. When he has to be more reserved, he's pretty good, but when he has to do a big emoting moment, it feels like there should have been one more go on it. There's one scene where he says, “Holy smokes”, and they literally play it twice. The first time, it's awful, the second time, it's great. Look at these back-to-back.
(The scenes are shown with the caption "Bad Take" for the first one and "Good Take (Literally seconds later)" for the second one)
Rusty: Holy smokes!
Older Russ and Rusty: Holy smokes!
(Various footage is shown, primarily focusing on the third act)
Doug (vo): So it shows he can do it. I just don't think he was given the proper direction to always get it right. So, yes, it can result in some very inconsistent and even annoying moments. Kind of like Turning Red, for every little annoying moment that happens, it's all kind of building up to this really great third act. In most movies like this, everybody can guess how it's gonna end or what's going on, but I was legit scratching my head at what this plane was or how they were gonna get the kid back to his proper timeline. Usually when I can't figure it out, it's a twist that is so stupid, it wasn't worth the wait, but this one really pays off. The whole last third is like a therapy session of him kind of looking at repressed memories, and I really like the fact that they make it look like they're gonna change something and they don't. In the end, everybody has to suffer through the difficult stuff. You can't skip it. Yes, a lot of it happens off-screen, but they make it clear there's gonna be years of suffering with this. The change doesn't happen in the past, it happens in the present. That's a really good message. There's even a thing throughout most of the movie of Bruce Willis saying, “I don't want to be a loser”, and at the end, he's kind of saying, “I'm not a loser”. But what I like is when you kind of get the reveal of what's going on, someone from another point of view could see him as a loser and sees his original life as being the winner. He's an image consultant, he's rich, he has connections to all these powerful people. That could be someone else's dream. It really is all about perception, and this movie does understand that. This movie is almost as good for what it does as what it doesn't do. There's a lot of scenes where I thought, “Oh, man, they're gonna go this route”. Like, there's a news anchor he talks to in the beginning, and it's a pretty funny scene, and the actress is really great. But she shows up again, and my first thought was, “Oh, my God, they're gonna do the thing, he's gonna get to know her better and he's gonna sleep with her, it's gonna cause this big third act breakup”. But, no. She just legit helps him out with his problems because he helped her out with her problems, and that's really nice and it's a lot more interesting. There's a lot of moments where you think it's gonna go really slapsticky or there's gonna be this big climax. Honestly, when I saw that plane, I just assumed like I would put down money that it was gonna end with the two of them flying that plane. And it doesn't. The climax of the movie is an emotional one. Yes, there's a little physical in there, but it's mostly just coming to grips with who you are, what made you, and what you're gonna be from here on out.
Final thought[]
Doug (vo): What can I say? I eat these stories up. It's kind of like a reverse A Christmas Carol, like, instead of the future self going to the past, the past self comes to the future, and I adore movies that do it right. My favorite scene in any Christmas Carol is when George C. Scott as Scrooge looks at his father as an adult. He's not looking at him as a kid anymore, he's looking at him at around the same age. The last third has moments like that where he's looking at his parents around the same age and he doesn't have to say much, the looks on his face are more than enough. So, yes, I really, really enjoyed this movie...eventually. I do feel like there's some people that are gonna be put off by some of the more inconsistent and annoying moments, but how can you say it's not worth it to get to that last third? Stick with it, it really does pay off, at least in my opinion. It may not be a perfect film, but by God, some scenes definitely are.
(A scene showing Older Russ walking Rusty to his car is shown)