Indigo

At the heart of this strained, domestic drama is an underdeveloped story about so-called real-life "Indigo Children," self-possessed, nonconformist young kids who, some say, are powerfully intuitive children gifted with abilities to change the world for the better. Director Stephen Simon's limited theatrical release Indigo concerns one such child, a girl named Grace (Meghan McCandless), whose drug-dealer father has disappeared, mother is in jail, and long-absent grandfather Ray (Neale Donald Walsch, co-screenwriter and author of Conversations With God), is in a kind of emotional exile. When Ray ends up on a journey with Grace (to protect her from a would-be kidnapper), he not only becomes aware of her preternatural powers to read thoughts and heal the sick, but also discovers that Grace is part of an invisible web of Indigo Children who heighten one another's abilities through spiritual connection. Once the notion that such evolved kids might actually exist in the world is established, however, the rest of the story--Ray's self-absorption, for instance--instantly shrinks in interest and meaningfulness. Yet, the film remains chained to its banal melodrama. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include a discussion about belief in real-world Indigo Children. Bottom line: an interesting extras package for a disappointing film.] (T. Keogh)