MOVIE REVIEW : Lovable Kidnaper, ‘Kid’ Hit the Road for a Bumpy Ride

Danny Aiello and newcomer Alex Zuckerman are so engaging in “Me and the Kid” (citywide) that it’s a shame its script didn’t get the further polishing it so clearly needed. As it stands, it’s an amiable family entertainment for the undemanding, but had the potential to be much more.

Aiello’s Harry and Joe Pantoliano’s Roy are a couple of ex-cons who crack a safe in a mansion in suburban New York only to find it empty. In his rage Roy grabs a youngster, Gary Feldman (Zuckerman), a classic poor little rich boy. Suddenly, Harry and Roy are up to their ears in a kidnaping--but there’s a twist: Gary’s so neglected by his self-absorbed parents (David Dukes and Anita Morris, in amusing turns) that he’s not at all sorry to have been kidnaped.

In adapting Stanley Cohen’s novel “Taking Gary Feldman,” director and co-producer Dan Curtis and writer Richard Tannenbaum fail to establish a satisfying premise. Roy is so dumb and dangerously volatile it’s hard to imagine that Harry would team up with him on anything--especially since he acknowledges Roy’s so stupid “he couldn’t find his shoes if he were standing in them.” Furthermore, we really need to understand how a guy as nice as Harry came to be a crook in the first place; it’s just not enough for Harry, a skilled mechanic, to say that he doesn’t understand it himself. Aiello has described Harry as a “petty thief,” yet we’re told that he’s done two stretches for armed robbery. And since when is safecracking petty thievery?

Consequently, the film proceeds in an aura of uneasiness that cannot entirely be dispelled by all the warmth and humor with which the father-son relationship between Harry and Gary develops. And if “Me and the Kid” gets off the ground in queasy fashion, it has an even tougher time coming to an end, resorting to anti-climax and contrivance in an attempt to send the audience home happy. It’s most effective in the middle when it plays like a road picture.

Even so, there’s no denying that Aiello and Zuckerman, whose hair is a mass of red curls, are a lovable duo, much like Wallace Beery and the very young Jackie Cooper in “The Champ.” Aiello has such warmth and tenderness, and Zuckerman is so bright and appealing you really want their picture to be better than it is.

Cathy Moriarty appears in an ill-defined role to lend her sultry presence as a motel/amusement park owner who extends a helping hand--and more--to Harry. (Aiello, however, ought to consider working on his paunch if we’re to believe that such a young, beautiful woman would come on so strong to him--and so swiftly--as Moriarty’s Rose does.)

What’s most surprising is that the veteran Curtis, with a long and successful roster of TV credits to his name, didn’t work out the kinks in “Me and the Kid” (rated PG for threatened violence toward a child, and for language) before he ordered the cameras to roll.

‘Me and the Kid’

Danny Aiello: Harry

Alex Zuckerman: Gary

Joe Pantoliano: Roy

Cathy Moriarty: Rose

An Orion Pictures presentation. Director Dan Curtis. Producers Lynn Loring, Curtis. Screenplay by Richard Tannenbaum; based on the novel “Taking Gary Feldman” by Stanley Cohen. Cinematographer Dietrich Lohmann. Editor Bill Blunden. Costumes Deborah Lancaster. Music Bob Cobert. Production design Veronica Hadfield. Art director Roger King. Set decorator Penelope Rene Stams. Sound Pat Mitchell. Running time: 1 hour, 36 minutes.

MPAA-rated PG (for threatened violence toward a child, and for language).