Bless the Child

Maggie O'Connor, a nurse at a New York hospital, is handed her newborn niece Cody by her younger sister Jenna, who then disappears. Maggie raises the girl as her own daughter, arranging her life around Cody's autism and the specialized schooling the child needs. Six years later Jenna returns with a new husband, Eric Stark, and the pair take Cody away. Maggie has no legal claim to the girl, and the police offer her no help, but FBI agent John Travis listens. He has been working a series of ritual killings, and he notices that the murdered children share Cody's birthday.

Directed by Chuck Russell, the film was released in 2000 and followed The Mask and Eraser in his filmography. Kim Basinger plays Maggie, with Jimmy Smits as Travis, Rufus Sewell as Stark, Ian Holm as Reverend Grissom, Angela Bettis as Jenna and Holliston Coleman as Cody. Thomas Rickman, Clifford Green and Ellen Green wrote the screenplay, and Mace Neufeld produced.

Made for about 65 million dollars, the film took in roughly 40 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 5.1 from around 16,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.4 from a few hundred votes, while a critics' score of 3.6 from 113 reviews places it below both audience figures.