LOSING ISAIAH

Details

• Release Year: 1995
• Genre: Drama
• Plot: Jessica Lange is a social worker who falls for an abandoned newborn and breaks all the rules by bringing him home. Halle Berry is the homeless druggie who dumped the baby. One of the film's best attributes is that it reveals everyone's perspective, though much of the story is told from Berry's point of view. Strung out on crack, Berry's character thinks nothing of hiding her baby in a cardboard box near a dumpster before going off for a fix. We watch Berry painfully pull herself up out of the gutter and make a life for herself. She embraces decency and sobriety and becomes the person she might have always been had her childhood been different. After Lange and her amiable spouse (David Strathairn) have formed strong family ties with this difficult child, they find themselves fighting to keep him when Berry decides she wants Isaiah back. Naomi Foner's clever script reveals a legal system that is as much a character in this painful story as the attorney (Samuel L. Jackson) who takes on the case pro bono. Though the film ultimately flounders under a hesitant ending, Lange is such a dynamo that this tragic story still comes recommended. --Rochelle O'Gorman
• Cast: Jessica Lange, Halle Berry, David Strathairn, Cuba Gooding Jr., Daisy Eagan, Marc John Jefferies, Samuel L. Jackson, Joie Lee, Regina Taylor, LaTanya Richardson, Jacqueline Brookes, Donovon Ian H. McKnight, Rikkia A. Smith, Paulette McDaniels, Velma Austin, Glenda Starr Kelly, Joan Kohn, Patrick Clear, Gaby Santinelli, Mike Bacarella, Mike Houlihan, John Beasley, James 'Ike' Eichling, James F. Tillett, John Judd, Cheryl Hamada, Jackie Taylor, Valerie Shull, Laura Cerón, Jackie Samuel, Deanna Dunagan, Mike Nussbaum, Margaret Travolta, Eddie Bo Smith Jr., Jaqueline Fleming, Sibyl Offutt, Greg Hollimon, Rick Worthy, Torrence W. Murphy, Crystal Barnes, Sheila-Marie Robinson, La Taunya Bounds, Tamara Rutledge, Valeri Ross, Jacqueline Williams, Ora Jones, Nicholas Foster, Thomica Laquice Simmons, Evan Lionel, Jennifer Crystal Foley, Matthew Brennan, Denise Aguilar, Christy Lombardi, Hector Matos, Stephanie Mullin, Daniel Nudelman, Elbert Pagan Jr., Kate Tash, Chris Tossing, Jonathan Rivera, Karen Luehne, Brian Friedopfer, Paul Jorjorian, Jim Minton, Trae Ireland, Antonio Polk, Michael Anthony Williams, Stephen Gyllenhaal, Seth Margolis, Naomi Foner
• Director: Stephen Gyllenhaal
• Runtime: 1:46
• Company: Paramount
• Media Format: Movie