This movie was very moving. As a Preemie Mom, I was glad to see something that focused on the emotions and relationships connected to life in the NICU. We spent 143 days in the NICU with our 20 ounce son (who is now 5, happy and healthy!) and the experience totally changed all our lives and our relationships. Having to deal with life outside the NICU while your child is fighting for every breath is painful and this movie showed a little of that struggle to the audience. You really can't understand life in the NICU unless you have experienced it, but this book/movie gives others a glimpse of what the roller-coaster ride in the NICU is like. Too bad there can't be a movie/documentary done periodically to keep the technology and NICU current - with as fast as things change from year to year....
Add a Review
-
lisa-lee21 September 2005
-
BentWarpedAndTwisted24 October 2001This true story of the premature birth of Emily Butterfield, the daughter of journalists Fox Butterfield and his wife Elizabeth Mehren, will tear at your heartstrings. Born at only 5 months' gestation, Emily was alarmingly premature; her fight for life spanned many months and was fraught with one medical complication after another. Fox and Elizabeth faced the ultimate moral dilemma: Allow the doctors to use any means necessary, no matter how extreme, to save her life, despite the probability of future permanent health problems and present pain, or let nature take its course.
Michael Moriarty and Pamela Reed are outstanding as Fox Butterfield and Elizabeth Mehren - their performances are gut-wrenchingly realistic and touching. Also turning in fine performances are Terry O'Quinn and Joanna Gleason. This was a made for TV movie but I would encourage everyone to see it; the story was adapted from the book by Elizabeth Mehren, which is an incredible read. -
BandSAboutMovies1 January 2022You know, I try and watch TV movies to ease the strain of the outside world, so what explains why I spent all this time watching a movie about Emily Butterfield, a little girl who only lived 53 days and the toll it took on the relationship of Fox Butterfield and Elizabeth Mehren?
Is it the crush that I have on Pamela Reed, who plays the mother? Or perhaps the fact that I will watch anything that Michael Moriarty does? Or did seeing Terry O'Quinn's name in the credits make me stay?
Noel Nosseck also directed the much more prurient films Best Friends, Las Vegas Lady, Youngblood and Full Exposure: The Sex Tapes Scandal. He moved on to some level of prestige TV fare like No One Would Tell.
But man, this movie is just a non-stop punch to the heart and soul. I'd advise you not to watch it, unless you're some kind of monster who likes watching people experience the worst pain of their lives.