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Bless the Child Synopsis

Omens and concepts of good vs. evil have no place in Maggie O’Connor’s (Kim Basinger) well-ordered, practical universe. Her life revolves around her job as a nurse at a busy New York hospital -- that is, until her wayward kid sister, Jenna (Angela Bettis), shows up on her doorstep one rainy Christmas Eve and saddles Maggie with an autistic newborn child named Cody (Holliston Coleman).

Cody quickly touches Maggie’s heart and becomes the daughter she has always longed for. But six years later Jenna suddenly re-enters her life and, with her mysterious new husband, Eric Stark (Rufus Sewell), abducts Cody. Despite the fact that Maggie has no legal rights to Cody, FBI agent John Travis (Jimmy Smits), an expert in ritual homicide and occult-related crime, takes up her cause when he realizes that Cody shares the same birth date as several other recently missing children.

The little girl, it soon becomes clear, is more than simply "special." She manifests extraordinary powers that the forces of evil have waited centuries to control, and her abduction sparks a clash between the soldiers of good and evil that can only be resolved, in the end, by the strength of one small child and the love she inspires in those she touches.

Paramount Pictures and Icon Productions present a Mace Neufeld production of a Chuck Russell film starring Kim Basinger, "Bless the Child," with Jimmy Smits, Rufus Sewell, Ian Holm, Angela Bettis and Christina Ricci. The film is directed by Chuck Russell and produced by Mace Neufeld. The screenplay is by Tom Rickman and Clifford Green & Ellen Green based on the novel by Cathy Cash Spellman. The executive producers are Bruce Davey, Robert Rehme and Lis Kern. The co-producer is Stratton Leopold. Viacom Inc. is one of the world’s largest entertainment and media companies, and a leader in the production, promotion, and distribution of entertainment, news, sports, and music. The film is MPAA Rated R.

Another Synopsis:

Bless the Child was extremely engaging. The musical score was gorgeous, the special effects creepy or luminous (depending on the scene). The story was edgy, with a slow unfolding from normal life to being ensnared in a hidden web of evil that keeps you on the edge of your seat and jumping.

What makes this film unusual was that while you feel the horror of a fly being slowly wrapped in a sticky evil web, you also get glimpses (but did you see it or not?) that a finger might be moving to bend the web and (maybe) provide an escape... It's a side that's not often shown in a thriller, and it resonated with my own experience of overt evil opposed, if at all, only through tiny faithful decisions based on glimmerings of hope.

Basinger and Smits give solid performances, Angela Bettis was absolutely perfect as an edgy, strung-out addict in way over her head. Sewell makes a great bad guy, with a thin veneer of charm barely covering a menacing black evil.

But the real surprise was Holliston Coleman, a kid who was only 6 when this film was cast and turned 7 as filming started. I didn't think you could get this kind of performance from a kid this young. Coleman is "the Child", so as you might expect she is completely central to the film. They took a huge risk centering this film on such a young child; the film would not have survived merely a good performance -- it had to be great, and Holliston Coleman delivered. The really tough part is that she's locked in her own silent world most of the film ("as if she's listening to something we can't hear") -- so she has to convey this huge range of emotions purely in her looks, her eyes, the way she carries her body. I was astonished.

Go see Bless the Child -- it's a thrill ride that also presents an interesting way of seeing the world, or the other world...

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