There seems to be this everlasting battle between good and evil. And right in the middle of the mess is Maggie O’Connor (Kim Basinger), a nurse whose fife of order ends up falling down around her. It all begins as Maggie arrives home on Christmas Eve to find her sister, Jenna (Angela Bettis), on her doorstep ditching her baby there. Baby Cody grows up with Maggie and begins to demonstrate special abilities. Special to most is that Cody is autistic, but when she starts to show signs of amazing and unexplainable abilities, the movie starts to take a turn.
Children are being killed and FBI agent John Travis (Jimmy Smits) is brought in to investigate as the NYC coppers come up short time and again. Travis specializes in cult killings and there is suspicion that these murders are just that. It’s when cult- like leader Eric Stark (Rufus Sewell) marries Jenna and kidnaps Maggie that the pieces start to fall in place.
The film was as dry as my introduction. The beginning opens with so much dialogue, I could hear people discussing their plans after the film was out. When Basinger and Bettis opened the show, I felt like I was watching a home movie. I don’t want to be harsh, but Kim Basinger couldn’t act her way out of a paper bag. Why give someone that bad so much dialogue? I know they had to get the audience up to speed, but nonstop dialogue with no action makes an audience very cranky.
Baby Cody grows up to be a six-year-old who is hunted down in order to use her powers of good for the dark side. Holliston Coleman plays the part well, but this movie as about as watered down as its blonde used-to-be bombshell, Basinger.
Smits is decent as the FBI detective, and why shouldn’t he be? I mean, he put in plenty of time on NYPD Blue. Here he is underutilized and way too observant. Speaking of underutilized, what is the deal with Christina Ricci? They advertised her as somewhat of a costar and propped her up in the movie trailers, but she’s in the film for like two minutes. Hello! That is just sad. If they really wanted me to believe in this film, then they should have had Ricci and Basinger swap places. Now that would have been sweet justice.
The only one worth watching was Rufus Sewell who played the glorified car salesman for satan, Eric Stark. Rufus is pretty scary, especially with those crazy eyes. I think that freaked me out more than his prince of darkness character.
I’m not sure how to tie this thing up in a bow. I just don’t understand it. The movie wasn’t witty, it wasn’t scary, and the effects were only okay. Something truly bothers me about a film that’s focused on heaven vs. hell being won by manmade objects of destruction, like a pistol, for example. Jesus didn’t have a Smith & Wesson to ward off evil, so why bring it into a story that boils down to a modern day rip off of the story of Jesus? The ending could have been so much more, but of course somebody reminded them that Hollywood was watching and they’d better make the ending just like every film before it. No, they wouldn’t want to deviate and actually get creative. Hollywood wouldn’t like that since it would mean everyone else would have to step it up one or two notches.
+ charlie craine
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