insufferable

Rating: Null/10 (29 September 2007)

At one point in the film, an American says to the young Christian Bale "You're beginning to get on my nerves". Well, that just about sums it up. The kid babbles incessantly and all I wanted to do was stuff a sock in his mouth. Not only that but there is very little that is believable about this child. Yes, he likes planes, but how many kids, in the middle of a crowd hysteria scene are gonna be playing with a toy plane rather than trying to escape like everyone else? Or how about when he goes back to his home and finds it empty - he just takes up residence until all the canned food is gone before even thinking about trying to find help. There is something so insufferable about this child that, try as I might, I never cared about him at all. He seemed totally self-involved - even concerning his parents. I'm not putting down Christian Bale here as much as I am the script that he is forced to follow. Same problem in a sense with John Malkovitch. He is basically a scurrilous character - but it is difficult to decide exactly what we are supposed to think about him. At one point he just completely abandons the kid - but that doesn't stop the kid from thinking they are "friends"... doesn't hold together at all. Children understand disloyalty... instead of mistrusting him the kid does everything he can to please him. He finds a far more suitable mentor in the doctor - but is continually drawn back to Malkovitch. Not very believable at all. In the end, I only watched half of the film before a glitch in my copy stopped me from seeing the second half. I was relieved rather than peeved.