Martian Child Reviews
Top Critic
Boston Phoenix
Directed by Spielberg protege Menno Meyjes, Martian Child is contrived, but it works.
Urban Cinefile
John Cusack is the best and main reason to see this mediocre film about a self-confessed oddball and successful sci-fi writer David who adopts a misfit.
ReelTalk Movie Reviews
An amusing and heartfelt exploration of the ups and downs involved when adopting a child -- in this case, one who insists he's from another planet.
Washington City Paper
The things Martian Child gets right are strong enough to save this apparent glucose-spiker.
Reel Film Reviews
Manipulative to an almost absurd degree...
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Laramie Movie Scope
What works is Cusack and Coleman. When they are on screen together something interesting always seems to happen.
Full Review
| Original Score: C+
Las Vegas CityLife
Martian Child would be a Lifetime Movie of the Week without the Cusacks
Quad City Times (Davenport, IA)
Sometimes, "The Martian Child" works as a weeper.Other times, you'll just hate yourself for getting wrapped in what essentially is manipulation. It's good-hearted enough, but it plays more with your emotions than it does with delivering an intelligent sto
Full Review | Original Score: 3/4
Maxim
John Cusack is perfect but it's Bobby Coleman who delivers one of the most uniquely original kid performances ever. You actually believe he might be from Mars.
| Original Score: 3/5
Baltimore Sun
After an ebullient and inventive first half, the film loses its wind and only gets it back for a sprint or two.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
Has enough wit and unpredictability to hold your attention.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Cusack and Coleman make this whimsical trip worthwhile.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
What if Lloyd Dobler grew up, gave up kickboxing for writing books about space battles and adopted a kid? I don't know about you, but I wouldn't miss it for the world.
| Original Score: 3/4
E! Online
It could have been so easy for this story, about a single man adopting a troubled kid, to enter schmaltzville. But John Cusack manages to deliver plenty of warm fuzzies -- without the sugar shock.
Full Review
| Original Score: B+
Cusack carries this unabashed tearjerker.
Charlotte Observer
Child resolves in a way that's touching, however schmaltzy.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
FilmStew.com
A faithful adaptation would almost surely have necessitated that the focus be changed from a father-and-son story to a polemic on gay fatherhood.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Martian Boy carries off the relationship with winning performances from [John] Cusack and the young [Bobby] Coleman...
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
