If you're going to make a thriller in this day and age, it would seem that you'll only get studio funding if you make sure the script centres around a small boy who looks decidedly creepy.

The idea is that Greg Kinnear and Rebecca Romjin-Stamos are a happily married couple with an 8-year-old son who gets himself run over and killed in a tragic accident.

Homing in on their grief, along comes Robert De Niro's doctor to tell them he can make it all better again by re-creating the kid using cloning techniques, providing they give up their old life and friends.

After much soul searching, the unhappy couple elects to take the good doctor at his word. Cut to eight years later and everything seems fine...until the lad reches the same age as his predecessor, and things start to go a little awry.

Although the premise is intriguing and there's much fun to be had in the script debating the pros and cons of genetic engineering, it would seem that the writer gave up half way through, leaving us with little more than a movie dedicated to cheap shocks and scare tactics.

The explanation as to why the kid goes darkside fits in nicely in terms of creating a bad guy out of the villain, it doesn't allow the movie to find any resolution.

De Niro is on fine form as the doctor, unlike Kinnear who wanders around with a furrowed brow constantly asking his son "are you okay?!".

The script itself however, is rubbish. There are more laughs to be had from the wooden dialogue than half a dozen George Lucas movies, and quite what the opening scene involving an aborted mugging did to serve the story is very much questionable.

Godsend is mostly frustrating for being a missed opportunity. It could have been so scary, but instead it was simply silly.

Richard Phippen