The first thing I must say about this film was what was Robert De Niro thinking? He normally has impeccable taste when selecting films to star in but this film would have to be one of the biggest shockers of the year in my humblest opinion. For a film that was marketed as a thriller, there was very little thrill. I may have jumped once from fright, hardly anything to write home about.

I was initially interested in this film as it is about human cloning and as a lover of Biology I wanted to see how they would tackle the subject. The answer, quite badly!! The film is based around Paul and Jessie Duncan (Greg Kinnear and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) whose son Adam (Cameron Bright) is killed in a freak accident just after his eighth birthday. Unable to have any more children the couple are of course devastated so when Dr Richard Wells (Robert De Niro) approaches them about the possibility of cloning their child they decide to give it a try after some initial hesitation.

As the procedure is highly illegal, the couple are forced to drop everything and move to Riverton, Vermont, where the Godsend Clinic is located. They must leave all their friends and their jobs behind just to give Adam another chance at life after his was cut drastically short.

The procedure is successful and after Adam is born, again, their lives return to normal, well that is until Adam turns eight and the angelic son they once knew has started to grow some devil horns. He is having trouble sleeping, having nightmares and his behaviour at school is beginning to concern his parents. They again enlist Dr Wells to find a solution and begin to learn a little about a boy called Zachary Clarke who young Adam keeps seeing in his nightmares. Who is Zachary Clarke? Why is Adam behaving so out of character? All will be revealed of course at the end of the film if you last that long.

The ?twist? in this tale was not really a surprise, I kind of saw it coming. The most annoying aspect of this film however was the ending. They have left it open for a sequel if the studio is mad enough to have another go at the storyline. I hope not! The special features section of this DVD actually has four alternative endings. They must be really bad if the ending they actually chose is anything to go by.

The film was just disappointing overall. None of the performances were anything to rave about, who told Ms Romijn-Stamos she could act? Maybe Greg Kinnear should stick to more light-weight movies as this was not his best effort either. Whoever actually came up with the screenplay should be sacked immediately too. The indecisive director also needs a stern talking to with all those endings he filmed.

The film does raise some interesting issues though. What would you do if you were in their position? Would you give up your entire way of life if you could bring a loved one back? It is important to realize that even if they could clone a human the result would not be an identical copy anyway as the environments would be different and we are all a product of the environment we are brought up in anyway. Okay, I better stop being a Biology teacher and discuss the film some more.

I can see why the film didn?t last long at the cinemas. It is pretty ordinary, but that would also mean that very few people have seen it and so it may do reasonably well as a DVD rental. There are plenty of better offerings in this film genre available this year that actually have a proper ending and don?t leave you wondering whether there will be a sequel of not. They are also guaranteed to give you a bit more of a fright which is what you want really when you hire a ?thriller?. Right!!

THE EXTRAS

Scene Selection (16 scenes) is available on this DVD. On the Special Features menu option the following are also available:
1) Audio commentary by director Nick Hamm (director) and Kramer Mongenthau (cinematographer). I didn?t bother with this one.
2) Four alternative endings ? I won?t name them as it would give away some of the movie. They are available with or without the director?s commentary. The first ending runs for eight minutes, the second one 9 minutes, the third one 17 minutes and the last one runs for about 14 minutes. That was a lot of time to watch similar footage over and over again. None of the endings are satisfactory really. The second one is most like the actual ending in the film with one additional scene that would have been worth adding for a little more closure. Overall, I think it is fair to say that the director really struggled with how to end this film and I still don?t think he got it right.
3) Theatrical trailer ? (2 minutes) The trailer doesn?t give too much away. It does make the film look interesting though, but you would expect that from a trailer.
4) Storyboards ? (2 minutes) This is just one of the last scenes with a storyboard comparison at the bottom of the screen. Nothing too exciting here.

CONCLUSION

?Godsend? is a thriller that unfortunately has little thrill. It revolves around Paul and Jessie Duncan (Greg Kinnear and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) who lose their eight year old son Adam in a freak accident, As Jessie is infertile, they believe they will never have any more children, well that is until Dr Richard Wells (Robert De Niro) comes along and offers to produce a clone of their son. Every thing goes along beautifully until the new Adam turns eight and begins to have trouble sleeping and begins to exhibit murderous tendencies. The film was a little predictable and lacked a decent plot and appropriate ending. Do yourself a favour and choose another film of this genre to watch instead.