Bogus 1996

Bogus 1996

Bogus 1996
1h 50m | Comedy, Family, Fantasy | Release date: September 6, 1996 (United States)

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.

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
Rated PG for thematic elements and some mild language

User review:

Quite a good movie, describing the case of a traumatized child who makes up a “secret friend” to help him survive in an unfriendly world. Having his foster godmother Harriet Franklin start to see and hear Bogus, the invisible friend, is harder to accept…despite the fact that she too was once a small child with (presumably) a similar burden.

Placed next to all the cliff-hanger world-threatening scenarios of many blockbuster movies, the story of a small child’s trying to come to grips with his mother’s death may seem somewhat trivial. But unlike those other flicks, it has the redeeming feature of being true to life. Despite the make-believe title character, the story itself is very down-to-earth (with only the exception noted above).

Director: Norman Jewison
Writers: Jeff Rothberg, Francis X. McCarthy Jr., Alvin Sargent
Stars: Whoopi Goldberg, Gérard Depardieu, Haley Joel Osment
Country of origin: United States
Languages: English, French
Also known as: Bogus
Filming locations: New Jersey, USA