ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 7, 1996 TAG: 9609090125
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
If it weren't for the adorable presence of one person in the movie "Bogus," it's hard to say whether anyone could actually endure all two hours of it.
No, we're not talking about the urchin, Haley Joel Osment, who plays Albert, the movie's central character. The cuteness comes in a much larger package, in the person of Gerard Depardieu, who plays the angel of Albert's affections.
Albert has dreamed up Bogus (Depardieu) to comfort himself after the death of his mother in a traffic accident. But Bogus is a great deal more like a guardian angel in terms of the guidance he gives the little boy and the woman who wants more than anything in the world NOT to be anybody's mother, Harriet (Whoopi Goldberg).
The trouble with this movie - and so many others directed at children - is that it's sappy.
Furthermore, it forces Goldberg, bless her heart, to trudge through a Rogers/Astaire-style fantasy dance sequence. She should have just said no.
Depardieu, on the other hand, knows the meaning of magic and struggles valiantly to create it on his own terms in this movie. But it's nearly a total waste of his talent.
It's the story of Albert, who must find a new home after his mother's death. The mother's friends are circus people, unwilling to take on the responsibility of a 7-year-old boy. And the boy's father is an unknown quantity.
So the boy's godmother, his mother's foster sister Harriet, grudgingly accepts him into her two-bedroom apartment in Newark, N.J. Unfortunately, there's not enough space in Goldberg's life for the little boy, what with her crabby inner child running amok.
Eventually, of course, Bogus gets through to the immature Harriet and sets things right between her and Albert. In the meantime, there's a horrible "Dumbo''-like hallucination to get through, that aforementioned dance number and a crinkly song from Depardieu.
If you like cute, you'll love it. Otherwise, forget it.
Bogus *1/2
A Warner Bros. release showing at Salem Valley 8 and Valley View Mall 6. Rated PG for one, upsetting car crash. 112 minutes.
LENGTH: Short : 50 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Gerard Depardieu (left) is Bogus, the imaginary friendby CNBof 7-year-old Albert (Haley Joel Osment.). color.