I liked this movie, I liked this movie not. There are points on both sides of the equation.
Dr. Kinder (Kathleen Turner) has established a huge scientific laboratory for the purpose of studying babies. She believes that babies communicate in their own special ways and that if she could tap into that language, she would be world-famous. She masks all her plans with talk of philanthropy and fundraisers, hiding her real intent – to make lots and lots of money.
Her niece, Robin (Kim Cattrall) has always thought things were a little fishy with her aunt, but she’s never quite put a finger on it. When Dr. Kinder brings Robin an orphaned baby and asks Robin and her husband Dan (Peter MacNicol) to raise the boy, they take him in eagerly. Dan also studies children, but his motives are far more pure. After taking in the little boy, whose name is Whit, the couple decides to take in more children for the purposes of research, and soon they’re running a huge happy daycare.
But what they don’t know is that Whit has a twin brother, Sly, who’s still in Dr. Kinder’s laboratory. She’s arranged the whole experiment so she can track the developmental differences in twins raised in different environments. And what she doesn’t know is that the babies are far, far smarter than she ever gave them credit for, especially Sly, who repeatedly tries to break out of the laboratory. In the end, it’s the babies who facilitate bringing down the entire laboratory.
This movie had some fun moments of comedy, yet it also contained a few moments of language. It disturbed me to think of these children being used like lab rats, and in one scene, when Whit and Sly have been switched and Whit is mistakenly to the lab, he cries heartbrokenly, missing his parents, and that was hard on me. (I’m a sucker for sad babies.) It was a little dark in places because of the sinister plots of the scientists. However, if you keep in mind that it’s all pretend, it makes for a much more enjoyable show. I don’t think I would show it to young children, however, saving it for children who are old enough to comprehend the difference between make-believe and reality.
Apparently there’s a sequel to this movie, made five years later, but the reviews have labeled it as so stupid, I think we’ll just leave it at the original.
This film was rated PG.
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