Problem Child

For this story to work (wealthy, shallow but well-meaning parents adopt nightmare child), the audience should identify with the boy, or at least feel a sneaking admiration for his antics. But Michael Oliver's snotty, fakesy-cutesy, grating, whining brat is a fatal turn-off. A film this bad just has to have a mushy message, and it's this: unloved and unwanted, it isn't until he meets Ben Healy (Ritter) and experiences unconditional love, that the unspeakable Junior attains a sense of self-worth. This isn't so much a film about parenting as fathering; the bitch-wife who wants a child purely as a lifestyle accessory is finally and humiliatingly removed from the scene so that Dad and his lad can march off into the happy sunset of mutual regard. Enough to make you gag.