DVD Movie Rating for: Bless the Child

4 out of 5

Movie Plot of: Bless the Child

Omens and concepts of good vs. evil have no place in Maggie O'Connor's well-ordered, practical universe. Her life revolves around her job as a nurse at a busy New York hospital, until one rainy night, her sister Jenna abandons her newborn, autistic daughter at her home. Maggie takes the baby in, and she becomes the daughter she never had. Six years later Jenna suddenly re-appears with a mysterious new husband, Eric, and 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.

DVD Production Details of: Bless the Child

Starring: Kim Basinger, Jimmy Smits

Director: Chuck Russell

Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Widescreen

Studio: Paramount Studio

DVD Release Date: August 13, 2002
DVD Features:
Commentary by director Chuck Russell and visual effects supervisor Joel Hynek

Theatrical trailer(s)

Exclusive Cast & Crew Interviews

Widescreen anamorphic format

Cast of the movie: Bless the Child

• Kim Basinger .... Maggie O'Connor
• Jimmy Smits .... John Travis
• Holliston Coleman .... Cody
• Rufus Sewell .... Eric Stark
• Angela Bettis .... Jenna
• Christina Ricci .... Cherry
• Michael Gaston .... Bugatti
• Lumi Cavazos .... Sister Rosa
• Dimitra Arliss .... Dahnya (as Dimitra Arlys)
• Eugene Lipinski .... Stuart
• Anne Betancourt .... Maria
• Ian Holm .... Reverend Grissom
• Helen Stenborg .... Sister Joseph
• Matthew Lemche .... New Dawn Kid at Van
• Dan Warry-Smith .... New Dawn Kid

Photo Gallery of the movie: Bless the Child

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size, high resolution photographs

Reviews of the movie: Bless the Child

When Maggie (Kim Basinger of L.A. Confidential and Batman) comes home to her apartment building one night, she discovers her estranged, drug-addict sister Jenna huddling in the doorway. Jenna promptly abandons her newborn baby with Maggie, who proceeds to raise the child as her own, despite evidence of autism. But as the little girl, Cody, gets older, what seemed to be autism starts to manifest itself in more startling ways. At the same time, a series of child murders are sweeping the city--murders conducted by a mysterious cult with supernatural matters on their mind. Bless the Child starts promisingly, with subdued, creepy scenes contrasted with more outrageous moments like swarms of computer-generated rats. Fans of religious horror movies will enjoy its twist on The Omen, with an angelic child instead of a demonic one--only the child is still pretty eerie. The special effects go a little overboard towards the end. Jimmy Smits (Price of Glory) costars as an FBI cult chaser, and Rufus Sewell (Dark City, Cold Comfort Farm) gives a pleasantly restrained performance as the charismatic cult leader. Also featuring Christina Ricci as a cult escapee and Ian Holm as a Jesuit priest

About mid-way through "Bless The Child", Kim Basinger has schemed(off-camera)to kidnap her pre-teen niece from THE DENTISTS OFFICE where the gifted tyke has been taken by a devil cult(I kid you not). She pulls up in a car driven by a man who we in the audience have not been introduced to. After the plan goes mostly awry, the poor guy schlepping Kim around in the car gets his eyes poked out with knitting needles. Both of 'em! Count 'em, one--two. There is never again any mention of this poor fellow, no shock or remorse from anybody. He appears, gets killed and all memory of him vanishes. This is a tell-tale sign of what's wrong with "Bless The Child". It's been cursed by bad judgment from the get-go, and all it's flashy pieces fail to come together. I've seen episodes of "Gilligan's Island" that were scarier