This allegedly heartwarming tale of magic and fantasy starts off with the rather chilling image of a young boy's mother (a fleeting Nancy Travis) being smooshed in an auto accident. The mother's foster sister, Harriet (Whoopi Goldberg), a tough, independent businesswoman, reluctantly adopts the orphaned Albert but neglects his emotional and physical needs. So the lonely boy invents an imaginary friend named Bogus (Gérard Depardieu), who, incidentally, also helps Harriet get in touch with her inner child. Ho-hum.

The film's PR asks, "Just because you can't see something, does that mean it isn't there?" I have never seen an iota of talent in Goldberg and am quite sure it isn't there. What I have seen is Depardieu lumbering charmlessly through previous attempts to break into the American schlock market. The whole concept sounds bogus.

Problem is, the movie isn't half bad. Albert (Haley Joel Osment) is as cute as a button. Depardieu is crumpledly endearing. Even Goldberg is bearable. Only at the end does Bogus descend into the emotional mire that claims so many American films of this type. At the Copley Place, the Fresh Pond, and the Circle and in the suburbs.