YMMV / The Kid (2000)

• Alternate Character Interpretation: As mentioned below, we view Rusty's father as a cruel jerk who unjustly vents his worries by taking them out on his son, but when we watch the film again, before we actually meet Rusty, he's snooping around Russ's house, inside and out, and then when we finally meet him, he's just sitting in Russ's house watching cartoons and eating popcorn (he says he was only after his model airplane, and then he saw the popcorn) as if he lives there. This scene alone helps establish what a mischievous boy he can be, even without getting into fights. So you can't help but wonder if Sam's treatment of Rusty wasn't entirely unjustified. There is a chance that Rusty's continuous mischief might have caused his terminally ill mother further stress, which in turn added to his father's frustration and anxiety, and that the fight itself, which caused her to leave the house against doctors orders, was most likely the final straw for his father.
• Designated Evil: We're supposed to see Russ as a jerk for wanting to get away from his father, despite the fact that his dad abused him. The same could be said of Russ's father for a short period, until it becomes clear that his father was simply scared about the prospect of having to raise Rusty alone.
• Harsher in Hindsight: An early scene shows Russ ignoring a voice mail from his father, who humbly asks him to come to Thanksgiving dinner, showing what a callous all-money-no-family businessman he is. Later in the film, we see why Russ is practically estranged from his family: Years of verbal abuse from his father; who, among other things, told him his mom was dying of cancer after she came to pick him up after he got into a fight with some bullies. Uninterested in Rusty's side of the story, he grabs him by the shoulders, shakes him, yells at him, lets him know that his mother is dying and accuses him of trying to kill her faster. Rusty's father then carries on yelling straight into his son's face until the boy starts helplessly breaking down and apologizing, then brusquely tells him to stop crying, while rubbing his tears away painfully, and then tells him to grow up faster, simply because he was scared of raising him alone. This ultimately causes Rusty to bottle up his emotions and develop an eye twitch in response to the tears he's suppressing. No wonder Russ doesn't want anything more to do with his father as an adult, until he sees the true complexity of the situation.
• Heartwarming Moments: The ending, where both versions of Russ encounter a third version of themselves in the future, showing that in spite of all the lessons they had to learn and hardships growing up, they're going to be alright and have everything they wanted out of life.
• Jerkass Woobie: Russ. He grew up to be a cynical jerk but had a traumatic childhood with an abusive father, a mother dying from cancer, and a friend who ditched him to be with a Gang of Bullies.
• Retroactive Recognition: This was one of Melissa McCarthy's first ever film roles where she plays a waitress.
• The Scrappy: Overlapping with Bratty Half-Pint, it's not unusual to dislike Russ' younger self since he's just irritating, talks too much, gets in the way, and is genuinely just a bratty kid. His older self is far more tolerable even though he's a jerk most of the time.
• Tear Jerker: The whole confrontation between Rusty and his father, especially the closeup of his father rubbing his eyes painfully, which could also double as Nightmare Fuel.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The audience is meant to sympathize with Russ' father for trying and failing to get Russ to spend time with his family, and view Russ as a callous ass for constantly blowing him off until it's revealed that his verbal and emotional abuse is the reason Russ became so emotionally crippled in the first place, but even then, we ultimately feel sympathy for Russ and his father when it becomes clear how scared his father truly was about the prospect of losing his wife.

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