Let me kick off the new year with a movie that that just reached its 25th anniversary; The Kid was directed by Jon Turteltaub and starred Bruce Willis and Emily Mortimer.
The premise puts the main character, a successful, arrogant and stressed image consultant, to confront his past; the past in question, as such, is personified by his former 8-year old self. By literally interacting with his inner child, the protagonist grows and changes his way of life. This particular trope, featuring a not-so-positive main character who is forced to face himself through a narratological device and grow as a human being , was quite successful towards the end of the ’90 and the early 2000s. Think for instance of Liar Liar (1997) and other such movies. I would assume that the general scheme for such a type of story has an older and more rooted origin; one good examples that comes to mind is A Christmas Carol written by Dickens in 1843. It is quintessentially the ‘redemption arc’ and the epiphany moment of ‘OMG, I’m a piece of trash and maybe I should treat others better’. I am sure however that there are other examples that are even more dated.
Going back to the movie, there is something to be said about the performance. As much as I love Bruce Willis, Emily Mortimer simply outshines him in several scenes, being charming, resolute and showing signs of having an ethical compass. Bruce Willis on the other hand should be playing an initially narcissistic and conceited protagonist; unfortunately, his smugness is also accompanied by his typical sense of amusement. The man just can’t keep a straight face – not even in an action movie if you consider Die Hard for instance – and I say that with all the love in the world. There is just something in that minute twitch on the edge of his lip, that almost imperceptible sneer when giving his lines. He has fun with his roles and that is why I feel that there were certain moments in The Kid where this particular characteristic (which is perfect for other roles) seeps a little too much in his delivery.
It is still a very enjoyable movie and I will add that this it is not the only one where Bruce Willis interacts with other versions of himself. Two particular examples that come to mind are Shatterday (an episode of The Twilight Zone) and Looper.
I would give this movie a 7 out of 10 ‘reasons for why the moon sometimes looks orange when it rises’.