I'm sure I'm not the only one who didn't like Losing Isaiah. It tells the very tired tale of one's birth mother being more important - no matter the circumstances - than the consistent guardian. The tagline is actually, "Who decides what makes a mother?" Obviously, one judge in one court in one county. If a drug-addicted, dysfunctional woman who is unfit to care and assume responsibility for a child, decides years later that she wants her child back, she should absolutely be awarded custody - despite the fact that her child has been lovingly and safely cared for by a wealthy and reliable couple. I'm not spoiling the end of this movie; I'm simply reminding you that Hollywood has taken that argument time after time, film after film.
Halle Berry plays the birth mother of the title character. Her baby boy is adopted by Jessica Lange and David Strathairn, but despite wonderful, loving parenting, our hearts are supposed to go out to Halle when she sues for custody after several years. Her argument: since Halle threw her baby in the trash can, she believed he was dead and didn't give her consent to have him adopted. Can you believe this? She was addicted to drugs and threw her baby in the garbage. There is nothing she can do to excuse or make up for that. I don't consider myself a heartless person. I'm thinking of the good of the child, and any judge with an ounce of integrity would make this an extremely short movie. Since it's nearly two hours long, you can assume the film takes Halle's side.
The funny trivia is that Halle wanted to inject The Method into her performance so she didn't bathe. For the life of me, I don't see how a little extra sweat and stench was supposed to make her a better actress. The audience certainly couldn't smell her, so they were only (unfortunately) treated to her acting. I cannot in good conscience recommend this movie.
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