Losing Isaiah (1993)

Directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal. Starring Jessica Lange, Halle Berry, David Strathairn, Samuel L. Jackson, Daisy Eagan, Cuba Gooding Jr., Marc John Jefferies, LaTanya Richardson, Joie Lee, Regina Taylor. [R]

A black crack addict (Berry), desperate for a fix, leaves her baby in a dumpster to score and later passes out. The baby is discovered and saved, eventually adopted by the white social worker (Lange) who cares for him. Years later, the addict has cleaned herself up, learns that the baby she believed had died is actually alive, and contests the adoption in court. Big questions and big battles are set up, but they’re expressed and answered without courage or conviction; husband-wife team of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and writer Naomi Gyllenhaal (parents of Jake and Maggie) are so cautious not to offend by taking sides in terms of motherhood and race, they end up stuck in a no-win resolution. Had there been more depth to the material, and had the otherwise solid acting not been undercut by a handful of false and/or condescending sequences, the movie wouldn’t have needed an emotionally-satisfying conclusion, but the conventional courtroom dramatics and spelled-out stakes demand an easy way out. A second married couple collaborated on this project as well—supporting actors Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson, who play opposing counselors.

46/100