Losing Isaiah

Last updated
Losing Isaiah
Losing isaiah.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal
Screenplay by Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal
Based onLosing Isaiah
by Seth Margolis
Produced byNaomi Foner Gyllenhaal
Hawk Koch
Starring
Cinematography Andrzej Bartkowiak
Edited byHarvey Rosenstock
Music by Mark Isham
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date
  • March 17, 1995 (1995-03-17)(United States)
Running time
111 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$17 million
Box office$7.6 million [1]

Losing Isaiah is a 1995 American drama film starring Jessica Lange and Halle Berry, directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal. It is based on the novel of the same name by Seth Margolis. The screenplay is written by Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal. The original music score is composed by Mark Isham.

Contents

Plot

While craving her next hit, Khaila Richards (Halle Berry), an African-American crack cocaine addict, abandons her inconsolable, illegitimate infant son, Isaiah, in the dumpster. She promises to come back for him later, but then she passes out from the drugs. The next day, the infant narrowly escapes death by the garbage truck. Baby Isaiah is rushed to the hospital, where they discover that he’s also addicted to crack cocaine because of his mother taking it while she was pregnant with him. While caring for Isaiah, a social worker named Margaret Lewin (Jessica Lange) grows increasingly fond of him. Eventually she adopts Isaiah and brings him home to live with her, her husband Charles (David Strathairn) and their daughter Hannah. Meanwhile, Khaila is caught shoplifting and is sent to rehab, unaware Isaiah is still alive.

Three years later, Khaila successfully completes her treatment and confesses to her case worker that she gave birth to Isaiah and abandoned him in the alley. Without Khaila’s knowledge, the case worker investigates further and discovers that Isaiah is alive and was adopted by the Lewins. They hire a lawyer, Kadar Lewis (Samuel L. Jackson) to contest the adoption and help Khaila regain custody of Isaiah. An ugly court battle ensues, with racial issues demonstrating inadequacies on both sides. In the end, the judge makes the difficult decision to overturn the adoption and return Isaiah to Khaila’s custody, much to the Lewins' horror and sadness.

Even after weeks pass, a distraught Isaiah does not consider Khaila his mother. Although he becomes increasingly withdrawn, he is also prone to violent public outbursts. Eventually, Khaila is desperate for Isaiah's happiness, and asks Margaret to step back in "for a little while... until he can understand." However, she insists she will also continue to be involved for the foreseeable future. The two mothers embrace each other, both proclaiming their equally strong motherly love for Isaiah. The two mothers then begin together playing building blocks with their beloved boy in a classroom.

Cast

Reception

Losing Isaiah received mostly negative reviews from critics.

It has a 45% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 29 reviews.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Halle Berry</span> American actress (born 1966)

Halle Maria Berry is an American actress. She began her career as a model and entered several beauty contests, finishing as the first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant and coming in sixth in the Miss World 1986. Her breakthrough film role was in the romantic comedy Boomerang (1992), alongside Eddie Murphy, which led to roles in The Flintstones (1994) and Bulworth (1998) as well as the television film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999), for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jessica Lange</span> American actress (born 1949)

Jessica Phyllis Lange is an American actress. She is one of the few performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting, having received two Academy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award, along with five Golden Globe Awards and one Screen Actors Guild Award.

<i>Jungle Fever</i> 1991 film by Spike Lee

Jungle Fever is a 1991 American romantic drama film written, produced and directed by Spike Lee. Starring Lee, Wesley Snipes, Annabella Sciorra, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Samuel L. Jackson, Lonette McKee, John Turturro, Frank Vincent, Tim Robbins, Brad Dourif, Giancarlo Esposito, Debi Mazar, Michael Imperioli, Anthony Quinn, and Halle Berry and Queen Latifah in their film debuts, Jungle Fever explores the beginning and end of an extramarital interracial relationship against the urban backdrop of the streets of New York City in the early 1990s. The film received positive reviews, with particular praise for Samuel L. Jackson's performance, and was also commercially successful.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olivier Martinez</span> French actor (born 1966)

Olivier Martinez is a French actor. He became well known after roles in several French films such as Un, deux, trois, soleil (1993), which garnered him the César Award for "Most Promising Actor", The Horseman on the Roof (1995), and The Chambermaid on the Titanic (1997). He has also appeared in Hollywood-produced features, including the drama Before Night Falls (2000), the erotic thriller Unfaithful (2002) and playing the role of a French drug lord in the action-crime-thriller S.W.A.T. (2003).

<i>Sweet Dreams</i> (1985 film) 1985 film by Karel Reisz

Sweet Dreams is a 1985 American biographical film which tells the story of country music singer Patsy Cline.

<i>Gothika</i> 2003 film by Mathieu Kassovitz

Gothika is a 2003 American horror film directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, written by Sebastian Gutierrez, co-produced by Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis, and starring Halle Berry with Robert Downey Jr., Penélope Cruz, Charles S. Dutton, John Carroll Lynch, and Bernard Hill. The film follows a psychiatrist who finds herself incarcerated in the penitentiary in which she works, accused of brutally murdering her own husband.

<i>Permanent Midnight</i> 1998 American film

Permanent Midnight is a 1998 independent drama film written and directed by David Veloz. It stars Ben Stiller, Maria Bello, Elizabeth Hurley, Owen Wilson, Cheryl Ladd and Janeane Garofalo. Based on Jerry Stahl's autobiographical book of the same name, it depicts Stahl, a successful TV writer for popular series like thirtysomething, Twin Peaks, and ALF, and his struggles with substance abuse.

<i>Clean and Sober</i> 1988 film directed by Glenn Gordon Caron

Clean and Sober is a 1988 American drama film directed by Glenn Gordon Caron and starring Michael Keaton as a real estate agent struggling with a substance abuse problem. This film was Keaton's first dramatic departure from comedies. The supporting cast includes Kathy Baker, M. Emmet Walsh, Morgan Freeman, Luca Bercovici and Tate Donovan.

<i>Perfect Stranger</i> (film) 2007 film by James Foley

Perfect Stranger is a 2007 American neo-noir psychological thriller film, directed by James Foley, and starring Halle Berry and Bruce Willis in their first film together since The Last Boy Scout (1991). It was produced by Revolution Studios for Columbia Pictures.

<i>Father Hood</i> 1993 American film

Father Hood is a 1993 American adventure comedy-drama film directed by Darrell Roodt, from a screenplay by Scott Spencer. The movie stars Patrick Swayze and Halle Berry.

The "Baby Jessica" case was a highly publicized custody battle in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the early 1990s between Jan and Roberta DeBoer, the couple who attempted to adopt the child, and her biological parents, Daniel Schmidt and Cara Clausen. In August 1993, the supreme courts of Iowa and Michigan ordered her returned to Schmidt, who named her Anna Jacqueline Schmidt. The case was widely publicized as the "Baby Jessica" case after the name given her by the DeBoers. The case name is In re Clausen 442 Mich. 648 (1993).

<i>Frankie & Alice</i> 2010 film by Geoffrey Sax

Frankie & Alice is a 2010 Canadian drama film directed by Geoffrey Sax, starring Halle Berry. Filming began in Vancouver, British Columbia, in November 2008, and ended in January 2009. To qualify for awards season, the film opened in a limited release on December 10, 2010. It is based on a true story about a popular go-go dancer/stripper in the 1970s who has dissociative identity disorder.

Prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE), theorized in the 1970s, occurs when a pregnant woman uses cocaine and thereby exposes her fetus to the drug. Babies whose mothers used cocaine while pregnant supposedly have increased risk of several different health issues during growth and development.

<i>Cousin Bette</i> (1998 film) 1998 British film

Cousin Bette is a 1998 British–American comedy-drama film starring Jessica Lange in the title role and is loosely based on the novel of the same name by the French author Honoré de Balzac.

<i>Lies and Lullabies</i> American TV series or program

Lies and Lullabies is a Rod Hardy-directed 1993 ABC television movie about a pregnant cocaine addict, played by Susan Dey. The film was released on DVD as Sad Inheritance in 2005 and is also sometimes known as Love, Lies and Lullabies.

<i>In Secret</i> (film) 2013 American film

In Secret is a 2013 American erotic thriller romance film written and directed by Charlie Stratton. Based on Émile Zola's classic 1867 novel Thérèse Raquin and the 2009 stage play by the same name penned by Neal Bell, the film stars Elizabeth Olsen, Tom Felton, Oscar Isaac and Jessica Lange. It was screened in the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. The film received a regional release on February 21, 2014.

Nicole Redhead is a mother convicted of the 2009 manslaughter of her own 21-month-old daughter, Jaylene Redhead-Sanderson, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Jaylene's death led to extensive public criticism regarding the monitoring of vulnerable children in Canada.

<i>Bruised</i> (film) 2021 sports drama film by Halle Berry

Bruised is a 2020 sports drama film starring and directed by Halle Berry in her directorial debut, who also served as the producer. It co-stars Shamier Anderson, Adan Canto, Sheila Atim, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Adriane Lenox. The screenplay was written by Michelle Rosenfarb.

References

  1. "Losing Isaiah". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved 28 December 2021.