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'Bogus'? You Got That Right

You're making a movie about imaginary friends and you're looking for the perfect actor to play the part of a kid's secret pal. So the question is: How far down on the list of living male actors do you have to go before you come to Gerard Depardieu?

The presence of the greasy-haired French superstar is only one of many puzzling choices made by director Norman Jewison in the creation of his aptly named "Bogus." A joyless exercise in assembly line enchantment, the film is a modern fantasy about a serious subject -- the death of a parent. Its hero is Albert (Haley Joel Osment), a precocious 7-year-old who, at the beginning of the story, is growing up, happy and secure, in Las Vegas, surrounded by an extended family of showgirls and magicians. His mother (Nancy Travis) is a dancer, struggling to raise the boy on her own, and based on the few, sweet moments they have together on-screen, she's managed to create an almost idyllic home life amid the show biz tumult.

Then the mother is killed in an automobile accident, suddenly throwing little Albert's life into chaos. Because his mother had no real family, he is forced to move from the Nevada desert to the industrial wasteland of Newark, where he is to live with Harriet (Whoopi Goldberg), a childhood friend of his mother. As the hard-driving proprietor of a restaurant supply company, Harriet has dedicated herself entirely to her career. The last thing she needs is some little white boy showing up to complicate her life.

To deal with these disruptions, Albert retreats into his imagination. The result is Bogus, an imaginary friend (played by Depardieu) who springs to life from the pages of a coloring book. And from the moment Depardieu first appears, rumpled, bulging at the waist, with his shaggy hair falling into his eyes, the mind boggles over how utterly and obviously wrong the actor is for the role. To quote George Bernard Shaw: "Not bloody likely."

With Depardieu in the part, Bogus comes across more like some vagabond pervert.

Dressed in what look like the castoffs from a cheap costume epic, this sausage-nosed giant loiters around the edges of the action, offering advice and moral support, all in heavily accented, absurd English.

Of course what Albert really needs is a loving, nurturing relationship with Harriet. The problem, though, is that his new mom doesn't have a maternal bone in her body -- a situation that Jewison and veteran screenwriter Alvin Sargent try to exploit as a source of comedy. Unfortunately, Goldberg's performance is so sour and miscalculated that the jokes get bogged down in bitterness and sarcasm. Instead of playing Harriet as a working woman overwhelmed by the classic conflicts between child-rearing and work, the actress portrays her as an angry grump with a chip on her shoulder -- an unlikable spoilsport who can't have fun.

What's more, Harriet's clumsiness with Albert is far too exaggerated to seem plausible. For one thing, no one is that bad with kids. But also, the generally grouchy tone of Goldberg's performance somehow reduces the significance of her struggles with Albert, transforming the story's weighty conflicts into petty hassles.

Harriet's problem, of course, is that she's lost contact with her own inner child. And in this regard, she needs Albert -- and Bogus -- as much as he needs her. She's blind to the magic of life, but because of her evolving relationship with the boy, her eyes are opened to the possibilities of wonder.

Jewison's message is innocuous enough and -- these days, at least -- nearly ubiquitous. Still, it's dismaying to see a filmmaker as sophisticated as the one who directed "Moonstruck" fall in step with the popular notion that a childlike belief in magic will solve every problem, personal and social. Enchantment has it value, but to see it as a panacea for all modern ills . . . now that's bogus.

Bogus, at area theaters, is rated PG.