THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 21, 1995 TAG: 9503210049
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Long : 106 lines
WHERE IS King Solomon when you really need him?
``Losing Isaiah'' presents its audiences with a genuine dilemma - a choice between two loving mothers over the possession of a baby. The adoptive mother is a well-to-do white woman who rescues the child from death and grows to love it. The biological mother is a former crack addict who, in a state of drugged panic, abandoned the baby but has since rehabilitated herself and now wants the child to grow up in his own heritage.
Interracial adoption has been in the news in recent years. So have reports of cocaine-addicted and abandoned babies. This kind of social-issue melodrama is usually the domain of somewhat sensational and often bland TV movies.
``Losing Isaiah'' deserves its big-screen status because of several heartfelt and intense performances, particularly from the disciplined and controlled Jessica Lange and an earnest, if inexperienced, breakthrough showing by Halle Berry, previously used for little more than decoration in ``The Flintstones'' and ``Boomerang.''
The film is meticulously balanced. It never quite lets its audience off the hook as it wavers back and forth between the two mothers. This makes it even more disappointing that the ending is a cop-out that will leave some angry and no one satisfied. The $15 million movie, based loosely on a novel by Seth Margolis rather than on any real-life incident, seems reluctant to take the chances that a cheaper TV movie could have afforded.
Lange, the actress who may well bring a new Oscar back with her when she returns to her home in Virginia, gives a harried and sympathetic performance, but her character's motivation is given short shrift by the sketchy script.
A social worker who apparently cannot separate professional and personal interests, she adopts little Isaiah because, as she puts it, ``he has such a will to survive.'' We know little, though, of her background and are asked to assume that her marriage, in some way, was lacking. More scenes between her and little Isaiah would have allowed us to perceive the love we are told about.
Lange has never looked more harried and traumatized on screen. Each of her more dramatic scenes is broadcast by a disheveled look.
It is obvious that the black mother's story is more interesting when it comes to melodrama.
Berry as Khaila is initially seen in the depths of addiction. (An overwrought scene that, thankfully, is not sustained in the predominantly level-headed film). Berry is not yet the experienced actress who should have been assigned this role, but she tries hard and shows signs that she will grow. In her most demanding scene - in which her character has to display newfound ability to read - she effectively suggests vulnerability.
After three years in prison, Khaila emerges with a remarkable degree of social concern. It's a turn-around that, as compressed in the film, seems a bit instant and unbelievable.
Although we initially find it difficult to forgive Khaila for abandoning her baby, her lawyer, played by Samuel L. Jackson, comes to her rescue to make a case that the baby should be raised with his own mother. He argues that being raised in a white home will not prepare him for the outside world.
There are no villains or villainesses in the film. As written by Naomi Foner and directed by her young husband, Stephen Gyllenhaal, it is clear that they want us to ponder which side we should choose. As a film that asks us to discuss racial issues, it is an all-too-rare offering.
Unfortunately, the film asks more questions than it is willing to answer.
Should Isaiah be returned to his birth mother, who loves him but doesn't have the same material resources? Should he be deprived of the right to grow up with people of his own race? Should he remain with the white family who can provide for him and love him?
The cast works hard and is fine throughout.
David Straitharn proves that he is one of the finer actors given too-low billing today. He plays Lange's wandering but decent husband.
Cuba Gooding Jr. plays the man who brings hope into Khaila's post-prison life. Jackson, ironically, opposes his own real-life wife, La Tanya Richardson, in the courtroom scenes.
Four-year-old Marc John Jeffries has the title role. Daisy Eagan, who won a Tony on Broadway for ``The Secret Garden,'' is fine as Lange's teenage daughter. Regina Taylor suggests the kind of presence and maturity that Berry lacks.
In spite of the disappointing ending, ``Losing Isaiah'' is worthwhile for the issues it raises. It is a rare film in that it asks us to judge cooly, avoiding the melodrama that it might have used as a crutch. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
PARAMOUNT PICTURES
Halle Berry stars as a mother seeking to regain custody of the son
she abandoned in ``Losing Isaiah.''
Jessica Lange
Graphic
``LOSING ISAIAH''
Cast: Jessica Lange, Halle Berry, David Straithairn
Director: Stephen Gyllenhaal
MPAA rating: R (strong language, sexual references, drug scenes)
Mal's rating: 3 stars
Photo
RICHARD FORMAN/Paramount
Jessica Lange portrays an adoptive mother fighting to keep her son
in ``Losing Isaiah.''
by CNB