Losing Isaiah

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!

Very heartwarming, inspirational, and touching film right from the heart. Losing Isaiah is a film based on the beautiful novel by Seth Margolis. The book and the film itself was outstanding. Wonderful acting by Halle Berry, Jessica Lange, Marc John Jefferies and the entire cast.

The film deals with emotional issues of adoption and it's based on real- life situations. The story-line was filled with hope. Losing Isaiah was a sad and uplifting moving story, a recommendation for all families. The film and the novel is must watch and read for a lifetime.

God bless this film.

"and a child shall lead them." - Isaiah 11:6

I've read the comments and the opinions from the various people on this board.I started used drugs after my son was born and I lost custody.My mother got custody.I worked hard to clean myself up and to be able provide a home for my son.Even after I was clean my mother wouldn't let me see my son,even though the court had ordered it and subsequently,my son didn't know me.I fought in court for over a year.I had to prove to a lot of people.I did win in court and my son came home that day.It was not easy and raising him has been a struggle at times.But just because a mother did drugs,it does not mean that her child is better of without her.It takes commitment.I went onto Nursing School and graduated and my son just graduated high school.We can turn our lives around and do what's in the best interest of our children.My son wants nothing to do drugs(his words),because he knows what it almost took us away from each other forever.I'm proud to say he's enrolled in the Army and we have a great mother/son relationship.Don't knock us because we made mistakes.Sometimes by making those mistakes,we become far better parents.I know I did.

'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.

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.