While this is a well-meaning film, it's also a frustrating one, utilizing a series of constant flashbacks to dramatize the relationship between three siblings who are separated all of the sudden when child services gets in and takes two of them away, putting them in foster homes and not allowing their brother to find them. Years later, the grown up oldest brother (Timothy Hutton) seek to find them and runs into more obstacles even though social worker Brenda Vaccaro has promised to help him as much as she legally can. After a while, she realizes the barriers that he's facing and breaks a lot of rules in order to reunite the long lost siblings.
I've seen several movies on the subject, and one of the issues is you feel like you are peaking through people's curtains and finding out their private business without their consent. Films like this are definitely of human interest, but they are not often well written to the point where you feel that they resolve anything or allow you two really get to know or sympathize with these characters. Also, when they are based on true stories, and you research the real families and individuals involved, you find out that the people are quite different than how they are presented on screen. This was a good follow-up for Hutton after "Ordinary People", the same year as "Taps", and he was such a good actor that it seems a shame he has somehow disappeared from the mainstream. Vaccaro's character is very vague, giving a hint of the background in her first scene getting the job (which takes place on the day the children were taken away), and there's never any real detail of who her character is other than some social services do-gooder who sneaks around to break procedure. A passable TV drama that actually had me feeling depressed afterwards even though it ended somewhat on a happy note.
I've seen several movies on the subject, and one of the issues is you feel like you are peaking through people's curtains and finding out their private business without their consent. Films like this are definitely of human interest, but they are not often well written to the point where you feel that they resolve anything or allow you two really get to know or sympathize with these characters. Also, when they are based on true stories, and you research the real families and individuals involved, you find out that the people are quite different than how they are presented on screen. This was a good follow-up for Hutton after "Ordinary People", the same year as "Taps", and he was such a good actor that it seems a shame he has somehow disappeared from the mainstream. Vaccaro's character is very vague, giving a hint of the background in her first scene getting the job (which takes place on the day the children were taken away), and there's never any real detail of who her character is other than some social services do-gooder who sneaks around to break procedure. A passable TV drama that actually had me feeling depressed afterwards even though it ended somewhat on a happy note.