The Baby Dance (1998 TV Movie)
I Loved Everything Except the Ending
15 June 2003
Warning: Spoilers
I love Laura Dern! I think she is the actress of her generation. She

is superb in everything I see her in. She plays every part so real, so

convincing. I also like Stockard Channing very much. I felt this story

was extremely sad and really made you think about the different

social classes in our society. Here we see a very poor family living

in a trailer park. They have no money and 4 children they can

barely afford. Their phone gets shut off and their car doesn't work.

The wife becomes pregnant again and they just cannot take on

another baby. Then you have a wealthy urban couple who are

unable to have a child and had tried for years. This seems like the

perfect solution for both couples. They make a financial

arrangement and agree upon the conditions of the adoption. The

more attached Stockards charactor comes to the unborn child the

more critical she becomes of Laura Derns charactor who smokes

and drinks coffee. She and her husband start to feel like the goose

who laid the golden egg. As Laura Derns charactor comes closer

and closer to the end of the pregnancy they keep asking for more

money and eventually tell them that now they want a car too! It gets

to the point where Stockard Channing and her husband want to

just walk away from the whole deal as they feel like suckers but

they have just way too much invested in this so they stick it out.

When the baby is born there were problems with the delivery and

the baby lost oxygen which may or may not had resulted in mental

retardation. Upon hearing this they are devastated and while

Stockard Channing still wants the baby, her husband convinces

her that this is not what they set out for and they leave empty

handed.

I agree with some of the other comments. The ending is obscene.

This couple couldn't have a child for years and years. They finally

have a baby and decide that they don't want it because of all the

problems it will have. It's a moral dilemma, but throughout the film

it seem that Stockard and her husband were the victims being

used by this poor family set out to use their baby to bribe them for

as much money as possible, but in the end you see then walk

away from the baby they've always dreamed of because of

potential problems. What kind of parents would they have made?

Really.
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