Losing Isaiah: Les Chemins de l'amour

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.

When 2 different races make a child should it go to the one race he/she resembles or the one who is a better parent to the child? I do not like this movie. The color of the skin shouldn't matter. The best interest for the child no matter what color, is what is the best interest and stability for the child...

I hesitated in seeing this movie for a long time because I knew that, whatever the outcome, I would be unsatisfied. However, I am willing to admit that I was wrong and the movie is a fairly accurate account of unconditional love and by the end, I was in tears. Fine acting all around.

I come from a family of 3 children, 2 adpoted and have to applaud this movie for doing a good job of pointing out that being a parent isn't about giving birth or "donating" sperm. A child always belongs with a family that loves him- it shouldn't be about color, or wealth or any other irrelevant factors. It's about responsibility and love. Any one can have a baby, not everyone can be a parent. There are certainly some stereotypes and the movie goes to the extreme point of a mother who literally throws away her baby to a family that is white, wealthy and kind to the child. The movie does this for dramatic purposes and succeeds in provoking a response from the many viewers who have seen this movie, as reviews will show. The movie also manages to enrage without even engaging the color issues. When Khaila's character tells her lawyer, "but I'm his mother" and insists on her "parental rights" it isn't even about color but about what is important about being a mother. Her character thinks that giving birth gives her rights over this tiny human being, (well played by Marc) when even children should be viewed as human beings with rights themselves. Parents who view children as possesions are wrong. I am "white" my husband is Mexican- does our child belong with one or the other? Khaila's lawyer says, "black babies belong with black mothers." Is that what we want to teach? Segregation? Doesn't work for me. Babies of any color belong with the people who take care of them and love them. That's what being a parent is.

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.