"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
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