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'Bogus': Name Says It All

"Bogus," about the power of imagination and the pain of parental loss, is a bit of a sham. Clunkily directed by Norman Jewison (who plummeted to Earth after the wonderful "Moonstruck"), it aims for the heartwarming and fanciful but barely achieves the mundane.

Seven-year-old Albert (Haley Joel Osment) lives in a glitzy showbiz community. His mother, Lorraine (Nancy Travis), is part of a Las Vegas magic show. But Albert, who wants to be a master illusionist when he grows up, is about to have his dreams dashed. When Lorraine dies in a car accident (I kid you not), the grief-stricken boy (following the wishes of his mother’s will) is flown to Newark to start a new life with Harriet Franklin (Whoopi Goldberg), Lorraine’s adopted sister.

On the plane to New Jersey, Albert draws a face with a big nose. Suddenly, the sketch comes to life and—presto!—a grown man called Bogus (Gerard Depardieu—which explains the huge honker) appears. Now Albert has a devoted playmate whom no one but he can see. This helps him enormously. Harriet, who’s obsessed with her work, is extremely reluctant to raise a child—espeially a white one.

"Bogus" is a frustrating stalemate: Neither Albert nor Harriet are prepared to change their glum outlooks or open up to each other. The boy insists on playing with his imaginary friend (in some of the most charm-free moments ever conceived), while Harriet tries to dispel those fantasies.

Clearly, we’ll have to sip overpriced soda and twiddle our thumbs until the inevitable, climactic love-in between Albert and his stand-in Mom. But there’s nothing to take us over the extended hump. The story limps from one mediocre episode to another. The images are either drab (during Albert’s everyday life in Newark—as filmed mostly in Toronto) or garish (when Jewison subjects us to Albert’s ineptly choreographed fantasy sequences).

Osment is a cute enough kid, but he’s not particularly compelling. Goldberg gets the phoned-in performance award for reducing her act to about three or four stock facial expressions. Doesn’t she tire of playing a dreadlocked Mary Poppins to a string of difficult, Caucasian children? (See "Clara’s Heart" and "Corrina, Corrina" for excruciating details.)

Depardieu, who has appeared in every French movie except maybe "La Femme Nikita IV," continues to look uncomfortable in English language pictures. It’s a shame to watch him cavort like a fool while knowing what he’s capable of. For him, this movie seems more like a language workshop than an actual role. It certainly doesn’t help matters that "Bogus" starts off with that metal-crunching automobile accident, which leaves Albert’s mother dead and the poor child alone in the world. What are you supposed to say to your children? "Hey kids, wanna go see a Mom-gets-killed movie?"

BOGUS (PG) — Contains the traumatic death of a parent.