Bless the Child

Plot

Maggie O'Connor's (Kim Basinger) life revolves around her job as a nurse at a busy New York hospital, until one rainy night, her sister Jenna, a hardcore drug user (Angela Bettis) abandons her newborn autistic daughter, Cody, at her home. Maggie takes Cody in, and she becomes the daughter she never had. Cody is sent to a school for children on the autism spectrum in order to make her more aware of her surroundings ( part of her condition) but the nuns who run the place are struggling to keep Cody out of danger and keep her occupied.

One night, Maggie is at work at her local hospital where she meets a young woman called Cheri Post (Christina Ricci) who Was formerly part of the same cult that ordered the killings of children upon a specific date. Cheri is a drug user who is afraid to show Maggie her arms which are covered in track marks and tattoos, one of the same satanic symbol of the cult. She recognises Maggie's surname and comments on her's and Jenna's similarity. Cheri warns Maggie to protect Cody as the cult are looking for her. Cheri is hospitalised after her fellow cult members injected her, in a failed attempt to kill her.

Jenna suddenly re-appears with a mysterious new husband, Eric (Rufus Sewell), and abducts Cody (Holliston Coleman). Despite the fact that Maggie has no legal rights to Cody, FBI agent John Travis (Jimmy Smits), an expert in ritual murder and occult-related crime, takes up her case when he realizes that Cody shares the same birth date as several other recently missing children.

Cody, 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.

Cast

Reception

Bless the Child received almost universally negative reviews from critics, with Rotten Tomatoes giving this film a 3% rating and is ranked #29 on their worst-reviewed films of the last decade.

Film critic Bruce Kirkland felt that Bless the Child was mocking Scientology in the guise of the fictional cult "The New Dawn".

Box office

The film opened at #7 at the North American box office making USD$9.4 million in its opening weekend. It went on to gross only $40.4 million worldwide, below its $65 million budget.

Awards

The film was nominated for one Razzie Award, Worst Actress for Kim Basinger, along with I Dreamed of Africa, but lost to Madonna for The Next Best Thing.