I checked the spoiler box, which I consider to be a service to anyone who considers viewing this film -- you don't want to watch it without knowing what you're getting yourself into emotionally. This movie, although well-acted, was truly terrible because of the message it conveys.
First of all, it reinforces stereotypes -- Wanda and Al, the couple giving up their child, are redneck trailer-dwellers who just can't seem to stop cranking out kids, while Rachel and Richard, the Los Angeles couple who want to adopt the baby, are wealthy Jews who have trouble coping with the Louisiana heat. Second, it plays up the nailbiting premise -- will the richies pay the swamp folk any amount to make sure they finally get their baby? Will the poor couple renege and keep baby #5? It's so melodramatic, especially the fistfight between the two men while Wanda's in labor.
But third, and most unforgivable, this movie sends the message that it's OK to abandon a less-than-perfect baby. After everything the wealthy couple have been through, when it turns out the baby may be brain-damaged, they decide, ultimately, not to take it after all because that's not what they bargained for. I sobbed in disbelief. As someone who has tried and prayed to have a baby for more than 5 years, if I had an opportunity to love and raise one, I would take it, even if there were physical or mental problems to contend with. That child deserves to be loved and cared for no less than any other.
In the story, Rachel had supposedly had 9 miscarriages. What if one of those babies had gone to term and turned out to have some kind of problem? Would they have just abandoned it? After all, that wouldn't have been what they signed on for. Wanda and Al didn't take the baby home either, I guess because they didn't have the money to care for it -- that's why they sold it in the first place. I was very depressed after watching this film; at the end, the camera pans across all the babies in the nursery, each with its name tag and decorations on its bed, and stops on a lone, crying baby, separate from the others, with a little doll in her bed left by Rachel, but no name. I know it was only a movie, but I was just wrecked -- what would become of that baby? I thought it was terrible and sad, and I hated Richard (played by Peter Riegert, one of my favorite actors) for convincing his wife to back out. Don't waste your time on this one!
First of all, it reinforces stereotypes -- Wanda and Al, the couple giving up their child, are redneck trailer-dwellers who just can't seem to stop cranking out kids, while Rachel and Richard, the Los Angeles couple who want to adopt the baby, are wealthy Jews who have trouble coping with the Louisiana heat. Second, it plays up the nailbiting premise -- will the richies pay the swamp folk any amount to make sure they finally get their baby? Will the poor couple renege and keep baby #5? It's so melodramatic, especially the fistfight between the two men while Wanda's in labor.
But third, and most unforgivable, this movie sends the message that it's OK to abandon a less-than-perfect baby. After everything the wealthy couple have been through, when it turns out the baby may be brain-damaged, they decide, ultimately, not to take it after all because that's not what they bargained for. I sobbed in disbelief. As someone who has tried and prayed to have a baby for more than 5 years, if I had an opportunity to love and raise one, I would take it, even if there were physical or mental problems to contend with. That child deserves to be loved and cared for no less than any other.
In the story, Rachel had supposedly had 9 miscarriages. What if one of those babies had gone to term and turned out to have some kind of problem? Would they have just abandoned it? After all, that wouldn't have been what they signed on for. Wanda and Al didn't take the baby home either, I guess because they didn't have the money to care for it -- that's why they sold it in the first place. I was very depressed after watching this film; at the end, the camera pans across all the babies in the nursery, each with its name tag and decorations on its bed, and stops on a lone, crying baby, separate from the others, with a little doll in her bed left by Rachel, but no name. I know it was only a movie, but I was just wrecked -- what would become of that baby? I thought it was terrible and sad, and I hated Richard (played by Peter Riegert, one of my favorite actors) for convincing his wife to back out. Don't waste your time on this one!