LOSING ISAIAH
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1995 James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 7.9
U.S. Availability: general release 3/17/95 Running Length: 1:46 MPAA Classification: R (Mature themes, drug use, language)
Starring: Jessica Lange, Halle Berry, David Strathairn, Samuel L. Jackson, Cuba Gooding Jr., Daisy Eagan, Marc John Jefferies Director: Stephen Gyllenhaal Producers: Howard W. Koch Jr. and Naomi Foner Screenplay: Naomi Foner based on the novel by Seth Margolis Cinematography: Andrzej Bartkowiak Music: Mark Isham Released by Paramount Pictures
LOSING ISAIAH tries very hard to make its viewers cry--and succeeds. But the chance to shed a few tears is not all this thought-provoking and dramatically-solid motion picture offers. An emotionally charged issue is handled with balance and care. Excepting circumstances, there are no villains here, and the case for each side is presented in a compelling manner.
The issue in question is whether a black crack child, abandoned by a drug-addicted mother shortly after birth, is better off with that now- reformed woman or with the white adopted family with whom he has spent the first four years of his life. Everyone loves little Isaiah (Marc John Jefferies): his birth-mother, Khaila (Halle Berry); his white parents, Margaret and Charlie (Jessica Lange and David Strathairn); and his adopted sister, Hannah (Daisy Eagan). But love often leads to pain, as becomes evident when Khaila goes to an activist lawyer (Samuel L. Jackson) to seek custody of her son.
In LADYBIRD, LADYBIRD, Ken Loach took aim at the British social work system and fired with both barrels. LOSING ISAIAH, while dealing with some of the same themes, approaches things from a vastly different angle. Here, both sides are treated equitably--for the drama to work, this is a necessity. Director Stephen Gyllenhaal manages to present the two perspectives without displaying obvious favoritism for either. Khaila starts out as crack addict, but we are shown her recovery and reform and, through her interaction with the children she babysits, are led to believe that she has become a fit parent. On the other hand, Margaret and Charlie have given Isaiah a stable, loving home in which he is happy. But they are not of his race and are not teaching him about his culture or background.
Much of LOSING ISAIAH is wrenching, and all of it is well-acted. Here, Jessica Lange gives the kind of performance for which an Oscar nomination is deserving (unlike her over-the-top caricature in BLUE SKY). Halle Berry is equally moving in a role that requires more range. Lange needs only to play the devastated mother; Berry must do double-duty as an addict and a woman trying to regain her son. David Strathairn and Samuel L. Jackson, two actors who almost always impress, are solid in less- visible parts. Newcomer Marc John Jefferies is amazingly believable and shows none of the awkwardness that often accompanies the debut of a child actor.
The end of LOSING ISAIAH is something of a cheat, but the eventual resolution is neither badly handled nor overly-melodramatic. However, it isn't the final five minutes that display this movie's strength--it's the other one-hundred. Numerous scenes stand out, but there is one image -- Jackson and Lange standing side-by-side under an overhang during a rainstorm--that summarizes everything about this film. Brief in duration but undeniable in impact, that moment has everything: pain, uncertainty, and the unbridgeable gulf existing between the issue--"black babies belong with black mothers"--and the real people involved. There is virtually no dialogue; it isn't needed. It's instances like this, which are scattered throughout, that give depth and poignancy to a story that daringly probes a volatile question for which there are no straightforward answers.
- James Berardinelli (jberardinell@delphi.com)
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