Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and written by James DeMonaco and Gary Nadeau, Jack is actually a fairly simple story about a 10-year-old that suffers from a severe aging disease. Due to the disease, his mind ages properly but his body ages at four times the rate of the average human being. With the encouragement of his tutor, his parents elect to finally put him in public school, which shows the positives of social interaction, but the negatives of his aging body.

There are always those films that moviegoers understand but professional critics don't. This is definitely one of those films to me.

While the disease that is discussed in the film is based on a real life disease, this is very much a fictionalized version of it, which is something that I feel many misunderstood. It was never intended to be a factual version of the disease, it's only loosely based on it.

The biggest positive about the movie is its cast. They are really the ones that help drive this unusual plot. The chemistry between Robin Williams, Diane Lane, and Brian Kerwin is impeccable, which is a huge element to the movie. Had it not been for that chemistry, it would've just been awkward, especially since Robin Williams was older than the both of them.

The role of Jack was tailor made for Williams. When I first viewed the film as an adult, I didn't know what to think, and didn't expect anything new from Williams because he performs most of his roles like a child-like adult. Williams brings an authenticity and such heart to this role that you honestly believe he is the ten year old he's playing. His performance becomes particularly memorable when the character has to come to terms with his own mortality.

The film also consists of two very underrated performances from the then new Jennifer Lopez and Bill Cosby. In fact, this is my favorite film with Cosby, because it was a great showcase for his dramatic acting skills. There's also the child cast, who give great performances of their own.

Don't get me wrong, the film is not perfect. The film gets incredibly slow as it builds towards its ending. It also pushes things a little too far during those moments, especially with the bar scene, which could've been left out of the film.

However, it all leads to a tremendous ending, which features a great speech from the character of Jack. A speech that hits a little too close to home given how we lost Williams.

So overall, this is a film that I feel critics completely misunderstood. Is it perfect? No. However, it is a film that I feel deserves a much better reputation than it has gotten.

Many reviewers have compared this work to Tom Hanks's Big, wherein a young boy wishes he were "big," and the wish is granted. However, this work is the anti-thesis of that work, as an adult portrays a young child, physically, which thrusts Jack into the same venue as Martin Short's "Clifford," which was done some two years prior to this work.

That not withstanding, Clifford was a holy terror, while Jack is a mother's dream. While both works require a total suspension of belief in order to enjoy them, Jack is endearing, sweet, sentimental, and entertaining. There is nothing endearing, sweet, or sentimental about Clifford.

Jack is born with a genetic disorder which causes him to age 4 years for every 10, thereby causing him to appear as a 40 year old man at the age of 10.

Many have bludgeoned Coppola's involvement in such a scheme, citing his prior "masterpiece" works while bemoaning this one. The fans seem to forget that artistic people who do not spread their wings, and plant their feet on strange ground, never grow as individuals and artists.

Some found this work "insulting" due to the premise. It is called unintelligent. But not all films are based on intellect, and not all movie-goers care to have to think in order to enjoy a movie. And there is the added benefit of the heartwarming sentiment carried by this work.

It did well in the box office, nearly doubling its budget, worldwide, and is generally under-rated here at IMDb (if only mildly so), which says that word of mouth (that this film wasn't as bad as the critics said) carried this film further than the negative reviews would have liked.

It rates a 6.2/10 from...

the Fiend :.

Pregnant Diane Lane goes into labor after only two months, delivering a healthy-seeming baby boy (when she pleads "it's too soon!" to her husband in the delivery room, it's rather an understatement). Doctors have never seen another child like this, yet quickly determine the boy has an internal clock which is ahead of itself by four times the average rate (meaning that when Jack is 10-years old, he'll look like a man of 40). Talk about your movie gimmicks! All that aside, what we really have here is Robin Williams back in grade school, and that provides for some good, if derivative, humor. The performances are all fine and, while the set-up may sound inexcusable, "Jack" isn't a silly movie (at least, not at its core). Williams manages to hold back a bit from his usual barrage of vocal effects and facial expressions, and a few of his scenes are peddled quite softly (as they were in "Awakenings"). There are some scenes that go over-the-top: Jack's gross-talking school-friends are a nuisance, and some viewers may get defensive when Coppola starts tugging at the heartstrings. Otherwise, this is a warm family comedy, one with a bigger heart than it knows what to do with. **1/2 from ****