I Want to Keep My Baby!

Young Mariel Hemingway (playing fifteen, and perhaps actually fifteen, but looking and sounding twelve) is a new mother trying to survive the rigors of being on her own and raising her infant. This TV-film isn't no-holds-barred, and it cannot escape sentimentality--particularly at the end--however it does have something. It puts a good-if-green actress at the center and gives her character some tough life-lessons to deal with in a credible fashion. I felt for Mariel having to turn down dates because of her baby, working late hours at a fast food joint, living in squalid places, and yet determined to be independent and succeed. It's probably very real in its dramatization of events (this is a young woman with few people on her side), and even if the picture doesn't always hit the right chords, it's very grounded and sometimes very natural.

Enclosure at 15 years, Mariel Hemingway chooses to leave a possessive mother and an irritable father-in-law to raise only his child. In the same small city, a young couple hopelessly seeks to adopt a child. An edifying drama, but sometimes a little too naive.

I saw this made for tv film, and it made me cry. In this film, a fifteen year old girl gets pregnant by her boyfriend and decides to keep her baby. She moves out of her house, and into a home for unwed mothers. It's amazing the struggle she goes through. Life is tough. I just couldn't believe the beautifully realistic, but frightening way it was portrayed, with the girl literally at her wits end. In the conclusion, the girl finally makes what seems to be the right choice, and all ends well. As I said before, moving, very moving. This a movie that every teenager needs to see.

Yes, it has some of the usual corny cliches of made-for-TV movies, especially ones made in the 70's. Yet all in all, it's a very decent movie and I would recommend it to high school sex ed. classes. Much better and more hard-hitting than the usual TV movies that simply just exploit people and their situations without adding any depth or insight. It's a very realistic, honest, gritty portrayal of the struggles of teenage motherhood. There doesn't seem to be a lot of movies out there on this subject, so this little gem is unique. Certainly better than the awful 'For Keeps' with Molly Ringwald that came out in the late 80's. That one was sooo badly written and had the worst dialogue.

We found this movie haunting and very emotional. My financee's birthmother carried the same name with almost the same circumstances. His birth mom died in 1976 and he never knew her. Watching this movie was like getting a glipse at what his mother may have gone through at age 15 being pregnant with him. Very well done.