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Is it just me, or has it been a while since my man John Cusack has made a great movie? The guy has some considerable acting chops, so thank goodness he’s finally putting his talent for eccentricity to good use. Martian Child stars Cusack as David, a lonely widower/science fiction writer who adopts a child who is basically himself in miniature. Shy, quirky, socially awkward and reluctant (or unable) to be “normal,” Dennis is an abandoned kid who believes himself to be a visitor from Mars, here to study these strange creatures called humans.

Dennis is played with delightful restraint by 11-year-old Bobby Coleman, who shared the screen with Cusack in the icky 2005 rom-com Must Love Dogs. “He’s like a little Andy Warhol,” remarks Amanda Peet’s character, and she couldn’t be more astute. Dennis wears sunglasses at all times, as well as layers of face-obscuring sunscreen, and protects himself from the harsh Earth sunlight by alternately hiding in a cardboard refrigerator box and underneath an umbrella, Michael Jackson-style.

As David and Dennis get to know each other, it becomes clear they are cut from the same unconventionally-woven cloth. Each, in his own way, is struggling to maintain his identity without falling victim to conformity. The film deals beautifully with what it means to be different (cue “The More You Know” logo and sappy music). In an age of standardized tests, we expect also to have standardized kids; but the fact is, as any parent will attest, kids are weird. Kind of like little aliens, they’re still in the process of learning how to be fully-functional Earthlings (as the film sweetly points out).

Watching Dennis consistently fail to live up to social workers’ and teachers’ standards of normalcy (and David’s parenting called into question because of it), the question that kept running through my mind was, “and what exactly is so wrong with this kid?” The social workers who watch over Dennis’ home life are almost sadistically obsessed with beating the “I’m from Mars” notion out of his head; rather than figuring out why he does it, they use it as a litmus test for whether David is a competent parent.

Despite often succumbing to sugary love-fest scenes (Cusack’s fervent “there’s nothing you could do that would change the way I feel about you”), Cusack’s anti-hero personality and constant air of melancholy tends to temper the overabundance of sweetness. His sister Joan (who, as usual, plays his sister) also proves a valuable sardonic antidote to saccharine moments. It strikes a great balance and hits all the right notes. Like an after-school special for grownups, it serves as a great reminder that differences are meant to be celebrated, and “normal” can mean practically anything.

Martian Child stars John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Joan Cusack, Bobby Coleman, Richard Schiff