MovieChat Forums > Martian Child (2007) Discussion > The kid belonged in an institute

The kid belonged in an institute


In a realistic environment, the child should have been in some kind of instution to deal with his unstable mental state. This is a movie, though, and John Cusack became the "institute". From the start I knew the word "Martian" in the title was metaphoric and did not expect a truly "science fiction" movie. Cusack humored the boy's eccentric behavior, a behavior that existed to the very end when the boy thinks he will be taken away by a martian craft. Happy ending though, when they hug, but an extremely corny narration from Cusack about he and the boy finding each other in the vast universe. The question I was left with was "Will the boy will ever become normal?".
Mountain Man

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even if kid was sick in the head? it still never answered how he tasted color or wished a team to comeback from 7 runs down? writers belong in a institution for writing this piece of crap, would have made more sense if he was from mars

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Some people *can* taste colors (google "synesthesia") -- the real Dennis, David Gerrold's adopted son, could do this with M&Ms. He outgrew this specific talent. He didn't actually think he was a Martian, however.

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He had been to doctors and professionals, the Sophie character said so in the very beginning. It wasn't what he needed. He needed to feel like he belonged somewhere which was something a family provides, not a padded room. And since this was, apart from a few details, a true story its kind of hard to say it wasn't realistic that the boy wasn't in an institution. Also, at the end, the boy did except that he was not a Martian and John Cusacks character did humor it at first but he learned to tell him no, and that he wasn't a Martian, he said so multiple times.
I watched the documentary/behind the scenes thing on the dvd and got to see the real Dennis and yes, he grew up to be okay. He's a bit rocker-ish, I'm sure he's a bit eccentric, but he's fine and happy. Him and his dad are really close it seems so... yeah there you go.

Oh and as for the second poster, this movie was great in my opinion but as for your questions as to how... I'm sure the lights was just him saying he did it because he said so after it had already happened. The home run was a coincidence, I've done things like that, but I don't have powers. The tasting colors was something the real Dennis said he could do and for the most part has been right but only with M&M's and it is in fact, not that ridiculous for someone to be able to tell the difference between the colors with M&Ms, sure it's only food coloring but there is a slight chemical difference that people with sensitive taste buds might taste. My sister says she can taste the difference and she's right, when tested, a large percentage of the time and she's 20 years old, getting good grades, engaged, and a "normal" functioning member of society. So maybe you shouldn't try to take things so literally.

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You make excuses for the kid for every action that was abnormal, but I saw no indication of his environment (family) treating him indifferently.
Mountain Man

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he didn't have a family until David adopted him, he had been abandoned and moved from house to house through the foster care system, that's not a family.

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Dennis had no real family until David (Cusack's character) adopted him.

Sophie explained early on that Dennis' parents had abandoned him as an infant (or toddler). That he'd been shunted from one foster home to another until David found him at Sophie's.

Hence the "safe" world Dennis had built for himself: That he's a visitor from Mars, sent to study Earth and catalog the assorted rocks, plants — and, apparently, David's garbage and the contents of his pockets.

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"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things,"
Of atoms, stars and nebulæ, of entropy and genes.
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Normal is subjective.

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OddBallin says that "Normal is subjective". Since the word "normal" is defined as "conforming to the standard or the common type; usual" his statement is rather naive. However, if society commonly exhibited behavioral patterns that did not fit any "norm" that might be true. Ironically, if that were the case, the word "normal" would not even be applied to a person's behavior.
Mountain Man

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OddBallin is a she, but okay.

OddBallin also says that if everyone behaved the same, living would be pretty f-cking boring. And normal shouldn't be applied to a person's behavior because there are different cultures with different ideas of what's normal. But in a psychological perspective, a person developing quirks as a coping mechanism is actually, well, quite normal.

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There have been people like MountainMan through all of human history.
» People who want to force their own conformity on everyone - and anyone who doesn't conform will be "cleansed".
» People who claim, "There is only ONE 'normal' and I define what it is! Everything I like is mandatory and everything I don't like is forbidden, prohibited and defined as sick."
» They have claimed it in the name of religion, they have claimed it in the name of "racial purity", they have claimed it in the name anything -- to avoid admitting it is simply the lust for power over their neighbors.

Plaf!!! Personally, I much prefer neighbors like you than like him.

Hey. Perhaps MountainMan is so far back in the mountains that (how did Jeff Foxworthy say it?) his "family tree doesn't branch."

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"The time has come," the Walrus said,
   "To talk of many things,"

Of atoms, stars and nebulæ,
   Of entropy and genes;
   And whether one can bend space;
   And why the spaceship shrinks.

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Normal is subjective.
And VASTLY overrated.

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All he needed was care, love, acceptance and understanding. He got that from his father. Isn't that what we all need in the end?






Some things you just can't ride around...

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Children this young should never be institutionalized unless there is no other way to control any violent, dangerous or self-destructive behavior. Children CANNOT thrive, grow and develop properly without at least one loving caretaker. Dennis' problems were also purely enviornemtnal (ie: he didn't have any mental illnesses, just emotional and behavioral reactions to his sucky life).

Treating him like a martian for a while also allowed him to be himself and devlop a relationship long enough for him to feel safe and comfortable. When children like that know they're safe, loved and comfortable they will grow out of dellusions used as coping mechanisms. Putting him in an institution would have kept him a "martian" until he was 80.

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This is a great post!

"Do you even remember what you came here to find?"

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No way.
He was very young, and because of being isolated by abandonment, was living in his own frame of reference, getting most of his input from his own imagination.

What would you expect?

He needed a patient adult to answer his myriad of "how come?" questions. It might even take several years to make up for the deficit.

An institution would be the opposite of what he needed. It would just be more isolation.

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exactly, i've heard so many crazy stories about what goes on in actual mental institutions. there's an advantage and disadvantage for shutting down a lot of them. advantage: people aren't locked up anymore. disadvantage: all those people are out on the streets now.

institutions were supposed to be said as the last resort for adults. ones that you couldn't handle or couldn't handle themselves.

children like dennis do have special schools they go to. they're called day treatment centers, and i'm pretty sure that the second school dennis went to in the movie was some sort of day treatment program to help him. and by the way the story ended, it seemed like dennis would be able to go back to a regular school in about a year.

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Let's take every kid that shows signs of trauma or abuse and lock them away
in institutions so we don't have to think about them anymore and feel bad. Even
kids like the one in this movie, who didn't have mental problems, but was just
trying to deal with his severe abandonment issues in a creative, imaginative
way, instead of acting out violently. Then after that, we can find all the other kids who are a little eccentric and imaginative and capable of original
thought, diagnose them with ADD, and medicate them till they become docile
little zombies who obediently shuffle off to endless soccer practices and
zone out for hours with their video games, just so their schlubby parents
don't have to interact with them and can instead watch Sunday football in
peace and quiet. It all sounds like an episode of the "Twilight Zone," except
that it's often true.

I'm not crying, you fool, I'm laughing!

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I think you're mistaken. The kid needed a loving home — like the one he found, or they wouldn't have had a story to tell.

Given the finances available to a publicly funded institution, the only resources within their means would likely have just made matters worse.

If you have the DVD (or if you ever rent it again) check the "Special Features" for the item "The REAL Martian Child". It's an interview with David Gerrold, the author of the original story — and the Martian Child that he adopted some years before.

Observations are relative to the observer.
— Albert Einstein
We don't see things as they are; we see things as we are.
— Anaïs Nin
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"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things,"
Of atoms, stars and nebulæ, of entropy and genes;
And whether one can bend space;
And why the spaceship shrinks.

---

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*** Spoiler ***

He was starting to, at the very end. When he turned to hug Cusack. He called him "Dad".

*** Spoiler ***

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Have you noticed that in Shakespeare's plays soothsayers said the sooth, the whole sooth, and nothing but the sooth?
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he did NOT need to be in an institution. lets get that straight right now

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That's what I've been telling MountainMan — and anyone else who agrees with him.

(However, MountainMan will never see your reply if you direct it to me instead of to him.)

***
Have you noticed that in Shakespeare's plays soothsayers said the sooth, the whole sooth, and nothing but the sooth?
***

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