Losing Isaiah

Try watching this movie sometime with a white woman who is the adoptive mother of an African-American child. I happen to baby-sit such a family and watched the movie with the kids' mother. I don't know how she sat through it without throwing something at the screen-not that this is necessarily a criticism. This film is very thought-provoking, though I think for the wrong reasons. The main focus is all about color and whether people should raise children of different races. Jessica Lange's character had a small speech in the courtroom about how love makes a family more than race, but it was just glossed over and the focus of the film went right back to race defining families. Maybe I just see this differently because of my close association with a family where the parents and one child are white and the other child is not, but family is not about race-corny as this may sound, it really is about love and support. The ending, as some other reviewers have said, is very wishy-washy. My viewing companion and her husband, who joined us at the end, liked it because they want to have a good relationship with their daughter's birth mother. I agree with them on that, but if the movie is going to deal with legalities so much, it should resolve those legalities at the end of the movie.

Losing Isaiah is a movie that attempts to deal honestly with the issues of interracial adoption. Its portrayals are most always right on the mark. Halle Berry is almost unrecognizable (of course, her natural beauty gives her away) in the first part of the film. She is compelling as the "gone straight" crack addict that threw her son away. Jessica Lang gives a strong performance as the social worker who dotes on Isaiah to the point that she almost forgets her own daughter. The best part of this movie, however, is the ending, when love for the child pushes all other differences to the side. For all the movies that waste our time, this one helps to make up for it.

A comment was made that this movie has a bad ending. This is a TRUE story that happened in San Antonio, Texas. Although Hollywood and most movie goers want a neat and tidy ending, this does not portray REAL LIFE. Indeed, this movie portrays a real situation and does it well. Makes you think a lot about our child adoption system. What is best for the CHILD is what should be the focus, however obviously biology is the only significant thing that our courts consider. This shows the child wanting and being more comfortable with the adopted family.

This was an excellent film. Halle Barry showed some real acting chops. Previous to this movie she was just in party movies, playing on her looks. She acted up against Jessica quite well.

However, the courtroom scenes were quite biased to Halle's situation. Not sure how much of the courtroom scenes were based on the real transcripts.

Jessica was excellent as always!

LOSING ISAIAH is a moving and well-acted drama that takes a hot-button issue to an emotionally manipulative level but will involve you to the point of taking sides. Halle Berry plays a crack addict who, one night desperate to get high, leaves her newborn baby in a pile of garbage and when she returns after her mission, finds the baby gone. The baby is rescued and is eventually taken home and raised by a sensitive social worker (Jessica Lange) who decides to raise and adopt the hyper-active, crack-addicted baby as her own. In the meantime, Berry gets clean, wants her baby back and takes Lange to court to regain custody of her son. This is an involving story that provides a balanced account of an emotional issue and if you're really paying attention, you will find your alliance with the protagonists in this story switching from time to time. Lange is solid, as always, and Halle Berry works hard at being convincing as a reformed junkie. Strong support is provided by Samuel L. Jackson and LaWanda Richardson (the real-life spouse of Jackson)as Lange and Berry's attorneys, David Straithern as Lang'es husband, and Daisy Prince as Lange's daughter. No matter how hard you try to remain neutral, this film will suck you in and find you taking sides.

'Losing Isaiah' is a film that is very relevant in today's climate where care homes are over-flowing with children because of the lack of foster parents yet still social services still allow place race as a deciding factor in the fostering process.

Based on the novel by Seth J. Margolis, the film sees baby Isaiah being abandoned by his drug addict black mother Khaila Richards in a bin shortly after his birth. He is found and taken to hospital where Margaret Lewin, a white doctor caring for him, decides to adopts him as her own child. Isaiah fits well into the Lewin family despite hailing from a different racial background and he grows into a happy, cherished little boy. But four years later, Khaila is back on the scene demanding custody of her son back now that she is clean. And it seems the Lewins' have a fight on their hands to keep the child since the family court system not only favours children being returned to their parents but also the idea of people only being allowed to foster/adopt children of the same racial background as themselves.

The quality of acting was excellent from all members of the cast. Jessica Lange gave a great depiction as Margaret Lewin, the mother who doted on Isaiah with as much love as if she had given birth to him herself. Although, on the surface, it was quite hard to like Khaila Richards, Halle Berry gave the role substance and managed to make her an almost sympathetic character as the film went on. However, the real praise has to be reserved for the tiny Marc John Jefferies, who played Isaiah. Anyone who has ever said small children can't act or tried to excuse mediocre child acting on the basis of the child's age needs to see this boy's first-class performance despite the fact he must barely have been out of nappies when he appeared in this film.

Reading other people's reviews, it's clear some people don't realise that social services will push to place a child back with their biological family even in a situation like this. No, I don't think it's right as there are many cases where the best place to ensure a child's well-being and happiness is to be far, far away from their parents but, sadly, that doesn't often happen. And race does still play a role in where a child up for fostering/adoption is placed. So, for me, I found this film quite realistic in that respect and could completely empathise with the Lewin family's sense of helpless and disbelief as they risked losing their son to a mother who dumped him purely on the basis of they had the wrong skin colour and DNA. 'Losing Isaiah' certainly shows that a child's sense of security and love must always come first, regardless of what the biological mother wants or whether his skin tone matches his adoptive parents.

The ending, unfortunately, was rather a cop-out. It delivered a typical Hollywood 'happily ever after' with political correctness probably at the forefront of the scriptwriter's mind bu, in terms of reality, with both mothers' agreed to share custody with the child remaining at his adoptive parents' home but going to a nursery school of Khaila's choice with her accompanying him, viewers were left annoyed the issues raised in the film were not properly addressed. Perhaps a better resolution would have been to see Khaila forced to give up custody (or agreeing to let him go for the sake of her son's happiness since she seemed to see more sense than the so-called judges, lawyers and social workers) then re-entering Isaiah's life when he was older.