Taglines: If you believe in only one thing, believe in Bogus.
Bogus movie storyline. Seven year-old Albert is the son of a Las Vegas circus performer. When she is killed in a car wreck, Albert is sent to live with his mother’s foster sister, Harriet Franklin, a no-nonsense businesswoman struggling in New Jersey. Albert hates it with the dour Harriet, but takes refuge in the company of Bogus, a flamboyant, gentle, loving, and altogether imaginary Frenchman. With Bogus’s help, Albert can perhaps come to terms with his mother’s death, and Harriet with her own loss of childhood innocence.
Bogus is a 1996 American fantasy film directed by Norman Jewison, written by Alvin Sargent, and starring Whoopi Goldberg, Gérard Depardieu, and Haley Joel Osment. It features magic tricks with magician Whit Haydn as consultant. It did poorly at the box office and Goldberg was nominated for a Razzie Award for her performance. It was filmed in Canada and New Jersey.
Although portrayed as Newark, NJ, part of the film was filmed in Van Vorst Park neighborhood of Downtown Jersey City. Apartment building that the character, Harriet lives is at the corner of York Street and Barrow Street is called Madison on the Van Vorst Park.
Film Review for Bogus
nub-nosed, mop-topped 7-year-old Albert (Haley Joel Osment) lives with his mom (Nancy Travis), the nicest showgirl in Las Vegas. She works in a magic act with a group of whimsical French performers. But when she is home with Albert, she does maternal things, like admiring his school report on Ethiopia or telling him to brush his teeth.
Albert’s mom smiles radiantly during such domestic moments. In a movie as creakily sentimental as “Bogus,” that means she’ll never make it past the first reel.
Sure enough, a traffic accident brings tragedy (although the French magicians remain whimsical even at Albert’s mom’s funeral). And the boy is left alone, since he never had a father. Then along comes Harriet Franklin (Whoopi Goldberg), who was the foster sister of Albert’s mom. She runs a restaurant supply business in Newark, and she is definitely not in touch with her inner child.
Ms. Goldberg is such a one-of-a-kind star that screenwriters routinely jump through hoops to create plausible characters for her. Her recent “Eddie” jumped through hoops quite literally, and that basketball story wound up showing her off to funny, entertaining advantage.
But her character in “Bogus” is far-fetched even by Ms. Goldberg’s standards, and this staid role leaves no room for her rambunctious, teasing comic style. Alvin Sargent’s dialogue is listlessly proper and doesn’t suit Ms. Goldberg at all.
Since Harriet is the sort of person who wouldn’t clap during “Peter Pan” to save Tinkerbell, she’s not eager to have a little boy in her life. But Albert comes to live with her, and soon she notices his strange habit of appearing to talk to himself. Actually, he is talking to Bogus, his invisible friend. The film supposes it is possible to be accompanied by a charming, attentive and imaginary Gerard Depardieu. This is not an uninteresting notion.
Depardieu plays his role with such beguiling gusto that it almost works, too. Like Ms. Goldberg, he is virtually embarrassment-proof and enough of a pro to sail past the maudlin weaknesses of this material. As directed to lavish excess by Norman Jewison, “Bogus” would be nowhere without the appealing bravado of its grown-up stars.
Ms. Goldberg helps the film with a confident performance, but it is Depardieu who blusters cheerfully through its only amusing role. Meddling in every aspect of Albert’s life, he even has opinions about what the boy should eat: “Fish cakes? Ah, no!”
Ms. Goldberg and Depardieu make a potentially strong team, but they don’t interact as much as they might. For one thing, Bogus is unseen and unheard by Harriet during most of the film, and that leaves him to do his coaching from the story’s sidelines. (“Why don’t you pick him up and give him a beeg, beeg kiss on his face?” is one of Bogus’s typical suggestions.)
For another, the film remains uneventful despite a few self-consciously big moments, as when the two adult stars strive for a show-stopping dance. All the film’s attempts at magic are as lumbering as this.
Jewison lays on the dry ice and special effects without adding emotion to a slow, hackneyed story. Sargent provides the sorts of insights and learning experiences that have everything to do with mundane movies and nothing to do with anyone’s real life. Osment, who played Forrest Gump Jr., has a poised, precocious gravity and shows off the actorish confidence of a boy with a television career. He appeared on “Thunder Alley” with Edward Asner and is now a regular on “The Jeff Foxworthy Show.”
Bogus (1996)
Directed by: Norman Jewison
Starring: Whoopi Goldberg, Gérard Depardieu, Haley Joel Osment, Andrea Martin, Nancy Travis, Ute Lemper, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Barbara Hamilton, Elizabeth Harpur, Fiona Reid
Screenplay by: Alvin Sargent
Production Design by: Ken Adam
Cinematography by: David Watkin
Film Editing by: Stephen E. Rivkin
Costume Design by: Ruth Myers
Set Decoration by: Hilton Rosemarin
Art Direction by: Alicia Keywan
Music by: Marc Shaiman
MPAA Rating: PG for thematic elements and some mild language.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: September 6, 1996
Hits: 78
