If you had a child who died what would you do to get that child back?
This is the question on which Godsend turns. It also turns on a faulty premise: that our genes determine solely who we are.
When Adam Duncan (Cameron Bright) is killed the day after his eighth birthday his parents Jessie (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) and Paul (Greg Kinnear) are naturally devastated. Approached by Richard Wells (Robert De Niro), “an old professor” of Jessie’s, with the 72 hour time-limited chance to clone Adam (any cells they may have in a tooth or hair brush will “lose viability” after three days) they take the leap of faith, cut all ties with their family, friends, and former lives, and move to Vermont where Dr. Wells has set them up with a house, a new teaching position for Paul, and a nice warm insemination table for Jessie. All, however, is not well in the lab.
You see, young Adam is a spooky child who gets even spookier after he crosses the age at which he originally died. He begins having nightmares, daymares, and sleep walking episodes.
Wells writes this off to night terrors but, being a concerned father and being in direct competition, it would seem, with the good doctor for not only his son’s but also his wife’s affection, Paul digs deeper into the mystery of Adam’s behavior.
Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, it isn’t.
This movie is flat and obvious; you can see where it’s going about a mile before you get there. It’s like The Omen crossed with every “man gets into trouble by tampering with nature” thriller you’ve ever seen. The plot is stock, as are the characters, and it’s entirely predictable.
The only notable thing about this movie is the way Lions Gate has chosen to market it. Several major newspapers, The Washington Post included, ran articles in the two weeks prior to this film’s opening day about the web site for The Godsend Institute. The articles argued that the web site was so convincing that grieving parents might stumble across it and actually think they could get their dead child cloned.
Sad to think that some people might actually believe that. Sadder still that a major newspaper would devote even “style” section column inches to talking about it.
There’s so much else out there, see that first. One popcorn out of a possible five. 
Yikes – I went to that site and it sure fooled me. It even has a live 800 phone number. Damn I’m getting so confused. Perhaps the latest reality show (at least the latest one I watched, ok so I watched one – so fu….. what?) – maybe that was just an ingenious advertizing ploy for…for…well, something.
My brain feels like that killer robot on the original Star Trek series that Captain Kirk put into a terminal confusion by giving it illogical commands.