This blog entry is part of my "movie year countdown round #2". Read more about that here.
The Kid
Right up front I'll state that I tend to have an aversion to precocious kids in films. As an example, my stock answer for my least favorite movie ever is I Am Sam. It's hard for me to say why, and maybe it's a fault of my own character. I feel much more sympathetic to pathetic and somewhat dimwitted children like the kid in Bad Santa or Dawn Wiener in Welcome to the Dollhouse. In fact I think I've stated this precisely before in another blog, but I keep finding myself pointing it out. But it's actually really difficult to dislike Jackie Coogan in this film. He is adorable and talented. But I can't help but feel like my predilection here might have knocked my rating down a point or two.
Now I was just talking with my friend Jason about Buster Keaton and we noted that his best films are the ones where the plot and comedy/stunts are all great. There are some Keaton films with lesser plots that still have fantastic comedy and stunts. Now I find that Chaplin can sometimes become a bit boring to me when he focuses more on atmosphere and plot than just giving us some good comedy. Not that everything has to be hilarious. City Lights made me cry, but I'm not sure why The Kid just seemed a bit more forced. There's no real reason for me to explain it. Just a personal feeling. Still, Chaplin is quite talented in the bits he does do, so there was no regret in watching this.
Rating: 7/10