Watch Losing Isaiah For Free

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Just from reading the plot of Losing Isaiah, I felt the film is better suited to a Lifetime movie. But after seeing the film, I may have to change my mind because on the whole, it is a very powerful and impacting film about child custody and the best interests of the child. The film would have been so much better, expect the film didn't have an ending at all. I did not like the ending and that took down my rating a notch or two. But film will strongly affect everyone, especially those who tend to be politically correct.Stephen Gyllenhaal's film is about a custody battle over an abandoned kid between two women. One woman is a former black crack addict who is now sober and leading a better life, but not after abandoning her kid in a drug haze. The other woman is a white social services worker who has a well-off family and a nice place to live. Now the crack addict named Khaila decides to sue to get her child back.This film is strongly acted. Jessica Lange gives a hell of a performance as Margaret Lewin, who shows unconditional love to the boy. Halle Berry also delivers a potent performance as Khaila, the grieving mother who also truly cares for her son. Samuel L. Jackson makes a good appearance as Khaila's lawyer and David Strathairn was decent as Margaret's wife.Overall, Losing Isaiah is a great movie but it could have been more if it wasn't for that horrid ending that left me with even more questions. But there is no denying the emotion the film provokes and the sympathy that is created for each woman. Each of them has their faults, but both of them truly care for the kid which makes this custody case even more heart-wrenching. I wasn't even able to choose a side. But this is a great film and I'm surprised I haven't heard of it until now. With a better ending, the film would have been perfect. I rate this film 8/10.

"Losing Isaiah" is one of those movies which should have been a masterpiece. It had a star-studded cast of very talented actors and actresses and a controversial premise that could have proved intriguing and thought provoking. It's such a shame then that this movie is undermined by weak plot development, poor character development and a sloppy script To be fair, this movie isn't terrible but I think that's mostly due to the excellent casting in this movie rather than anything else. Jessica Lange gives great depth and dimension to her role and allows the viewer to feel great sympathy, understanding and compassion for her character and its predicament. Samuel L Jackson also gives quite a lot of depth to his role Mark John Jeffries is amazing in his portrayal of Isaiah -great talent for one so young -and Daisy Eagan's performance as Jessica Lange's daughter is also wonderful. This is not Halle Berry's best performance but in all fairness, I don't think this is totally her fault for reasons I'll mention below The character development is woeful. Both Halle Berry and Samuel L Jackson in particular are essentially reduced to stock characters with the latter in particular reduced to spouting out tired old clichés about race and racial stereotypes that are tedious and almost painful to watch. In the hands of more talented production/script team, these issues could probably have been discussed and explored much more effectively but here they just sound weak and annoying. Halle Berry's character is equally as badly sketched and the writers fail to give it the depth and the substance (or the dialogue or emotion) that would allow the audience to feel greater sympathy or empathy for her and her predicament.Finally there's the plot development. Although the writers/producers do a good job exploring the circumstances behind the adoption of Isaiah by the Lewin family and illustrating how he has become an integral part of the family, they drop the ball as soon as they introduce the sequence of events where Halle Berry's character wants custody back of her baby. In particular the courtroom drama relating to Halle Berry's desire to have her son back was ultimately weak and deeply flawed -failing to explore the issues properly beyond a bunch of tired of clichés -and this meant that the court's ultimate judgment was unsatisfying and difficult to comprehend by the audience. To be fair, the ending to the movie wasn't totally awful but probably was a too cute effort to try and wrap everything up and tie up the loose ends and forge some attempt at consensus -probably unrealistic in real life."Losing Isaiah" is still a watchable movie despite all these flaws but it's just incredibly frustrating to see all the potential of a great cast and a great plot potential squandered. If you read Jessica Lange's comments about this movie in the trivia section, it probably sums up accurately this movie and all that is wrong with it

I've read the comments and the opinions from the various people on this board.I started used drugs after my son was born and I lost custody.My mother got custody.I worked hard to clean myself up and to be able provide a home for my son.Even after I was clean my mother wouldn't let me see my son,even though the court had ordered it and subsequently,my son didn't know me.I fought in court for over a year.I had to prove to a lot of people.I did win in court and my son came home that day.It was not easy and raising him has been a struggle at times.But just because a mother did drugs,it does not mean that her child is better of without her.It takes commitment.I went onto Nursing School and graduated and my son just graduated high school.We can turn our lives around and do what's in the best interest of our children.My son wants nothing to do drugs(his words),because he knows what it almost took us away from each other forever.I'm proud to say he's enrolled in the Army and we have a great mother/son relationship.Don't knock us because we made mistakes.Sometimes by making those mistakes,we become far better parents.I know I did.

Seth Margolis' novel becomes middle-of-the-road drama about a white woman and her husband fighting a black woman in court over the custody of the black woman's baby son, whom she left in a dumpster two years prior to cleaning up her life as a homeless crack-addict. Uninventive presentation plays like a dulled-out TV-movie, and the two leading actresses (Jessica Lange and Halle Berry), while well cast, can't do much more than fill these stock roles with their individual charisma and personalities (they can't invest much heart into the proceedings when the screenplay is all processed emotion). The outcome of the case (and the reasons for the outcome) seem dated already, and the concluding events are standard, predictable scenes of coming to terms. ** from ****