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Paul and Jessica (Kinnear and Romijn-Stamos) are devastated when their 8-year-old son Adam (Bright) is killed in an accident. Amid their grief, they give in to the suggestion of a local scientist, Dr Richard Wells (De Niro), who claims that he can clone their son and give him back to them. Jump forward to another 8th birthday party and Adam Mach II (Bright with a different haircut) is a happy child with doting parents and nice Uncle Richard. Then at the point where the first Adam died, the new Adam starts having freaky visions, spitting on classmates and eying the axe with new interest.

There's so little originality here that it's hard for the film to generate any real emotion or suspense, but that doesn't stop director Hamm from trying. It's a thriller only because he continually jolts us with loud chords of music, sudden red herrings or unexplained moments of grisliness. But none of this resonates since the script never even tries to make it hang together sensibly. Still, the film's worth seeing for the solid performances given by Kinnear and Romijn-Stamos--they so vividly get under the skin of this desperate, frightened couple that we willingly accept the silly tale they're in. De Niro is fine in what turns out to be a thankless role. Although nowhere near as thankless as poor Bailey's jittery ex-nanny, who has to explain the big surprise revelation in an oracle-like fashion. And Bright brings a nice Damian-like creepiness to the shifty young Adam. But even mentioning Damian reminds us how weak this is compared to The Omen's raw horror. And even worse, this has the nerve to make a half-hearted moral statement about cloning. Oh just stop already!