Get your hands off my baby!
Directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal, "Losing Isaiah" stars Halle Berry as Khalia Richards, a drug addicted African American who abandons Isaiah, her newborn baby. This baby is adopted by a white social worker, played by Jessica Lange. Years later, Khalia attempts to regain custody of her child. A court case ensues.The situation presented in "Losing Isaiah" is a bit of an anomaly; birth mothers typically only have a 30 day window to reclaim children put up for adoption. In "Losing Isaiah", though, Khalia never consents to have her child adopted, creating a legal loophole.
Nevertheless, "Raising Isaiah" does ask somewhat interesting questions: should children like Isaiah be returned to their birth mothers, or should they be left with middle-class white mothers? What is in the child's best interest? What are the racial implications of these matters? What is legal? What is moral?
"Losing Isaiah" is too superficial to meaningfully wrestle with these questions, though it does eventually settle upon a solution that demonstrates a certain type of wisdom. Here both mothers, white and black, join forces in the interests of their child; neither has a monopoly on love. Samuel L. Jackson co-stars as a hilariously disgruntled lawyer.
7/10 – Worth one viewing.
score /10
tieman64 5 March 2015
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3196436/34784
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