I wasn't familiar with the true story but was expecting a dated look at drug addiction and class disparity baked into a predictable plot. Thankfully I was also treated to a legal drama, one in which I went back and forth regarding my thoughts on the outcome of the case. It did take a little while to get into this but it was easy to stay focused once the more captivating legal issues came into play, creating stakes for nearly every character. This featured a very recognizable cast although that didn't mean I actually liked all the performances. Samuel L. Jackson Binge: Jackson had one of the better, if not best, performances in this movie with his intensely focused portrayal of the lawyer who was advocating on behalf of the biological mother. He had the chance to perform on a few different levels here and successfully went a bit deeper than he is normally asked to. SLJ January #47

Hally Berry played the mess out of this role!

Losing Isaiah is an excellent film. It is about natural and adoptive mothers of a young boy are involved in a custody battle. Jessica Lange and Halle Berry give fantastic performances. The screenplay is good but a little slow in places. Stephen Gyllenhaal did a great job directing this movie. I enjoyed watching this motion picture because of the drama. Losing Isaiah is a must see.

Una de las películas q más me ha hecho llorar en mi vida. Un lindo mensaje de amor

Despite having strong central performances from both Jessica Lange and Halle Berry this is an overly sentimental and schmaltzy movie that plays every trick to play at the heart strings and doesn't really succeed. What should be a difficult and interesting and powerful conflict about whether it is better that an abandoned child is better raised with a family from a different ethnic background or returned to his birth mother is dealt with in only the most simplistic terms and is not really explored as fully as such a topic should be. Maybe this is an argument that has had its day since the movie was made but it all feels somewhat glib, a feeling not helped by the rather unsatisfying way in which the movie ends. These days, I would hope that in such situations, none of the professional and legal bodies depicted in this movie would behave in the manner depicted and the fact that there is little exploration by the court as to what is best for the child nor does there seem to be any involvement of the child in the decision. Maybe we've just moved on? I would hope so.

Jessica Lang has such a strange looking face. Berry is great in this film.

This movie was so intense emotionally, I had to pause it a couple times and process what had to be said. This was the best drama I have watched in a while.

This movie was very sad to me.But I really enjoyed it and I would watch it over and over again if I had the movie.

Featuring a performance from Halle Berry deemed by many to be Academy Award calibre, Losing Isaiah had a powerful dramatic status which I felt I could not disregard. Losing Isaiah is very much a modern day retelling of Kramer vs. Kramer. Rather than a father and mother battling for custody of a child, you've got two women who have both asserted the role of mother for the titular child Isaiah. Hitting a hard kind of drama, the custody battle becomes centred around a biological mother against an adoptive mother, challenging viewers to consider what truly constitutes the validity of such a position. The way the story is placed, both sides of the legal battle are represented by characters that the viewer wants to root for and both characters are sympathetic in their plight. This sets the story up to be a really powerful one where viewers are dragged through a lot of emotional manipulation and changes to comprehend the extent of drama in the story. This lays a lot of power down on audiences even if the film descends into melodramatic territory semi-frequently, and it's a lot to take in. The film really poses a lot of questions at audiences and twists them in many directions with its moral concepts, so its quite a lot to take in. And as this makes its way through themes of race relations, different class systems, family struggles and courtroom drama we are challenged to really take in multiple perspectives on the material. Frankly, Losing Isaiah is a very emotionally charged film which tackles some edgy material. There is a lot of material in the script which occasionally displays the film exceeding its narrative grasp simply because it wants to push beyond the limits of familiar dramatic material. The ambitions are worthy of praise, but the screenplay isn't consistently developed to supply enough intelligent writing that actually lives up to the wider attempts at dramatic edge. For one thing, the side of Khaila Richards is way too simplistic. The extent of realism in it isn't exactly convincing because the main factor supporting her side surrounds her ethnicity and not so much her credibility as a person. Halle Berry makes it a challenge not to support her, but in looking at it from a perspective of legal sensibility it would be hard for many viewers to support the side of someone who left her child for dead regardless of her ethnicity or any other factors. Perhaps a different perspective would come from someone of a different race or gender, but I just genuinely didn't believe that the legal system would ever be as simplistic as Stephen and Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal have depicted it as. There is even a subplot introduced somewhere along the way about a relationship between Khaila Richards and a local named Eddie Hughes, but this gets forgotten about somewhere along the way and therefore adds no ultimate development to the final narrative. This means it achieves little more than being a simple distraction from the main premise, and so I can't help but wonder what the hell the point of it was. It didn't add anything, and even though it did give the film an excuse to add Cuba Gooding Jr. to the cast it didn't have any lasting value. Unfortunately, even if viewers enjoy the dramatic leadup of Losing Isaiah it is hard to look past the ending. The entire buildup of the film is contradicted by the poor calibre of its conclusion. Once the legal battle is finished, the film is just about over. But before it completely finishes, it rushes viewers to an ending which is both a little too optimistic and nihilistic at the same time: Isaiah is given back to his birth mother but misses his adoptive mother and so the two ultimately find a way of coinciding so that they may both be involved in his life. After battling each other for the title of mother in an emotionally charged court case, suddenly they are able to easily put their differences aside within a matter of minutes for the good of the child. So all the melodramatic buildup in the film was for nothing; for a film that closes like an afterschool special which lives in happy land. I'll tell you right now, I was not a happy customer and nor did I believe in the excess of optimism which followed a film which was so bluntly pessimistic for the majority of its running time. I felt betrayed; like I had spent a lot of time waiting for an ending which never arrived. Frankly, Losing Isaiah seems mostly like the prequel to another film which never happened and as a result it is half a story at best, even though it has two parallel plots. However, I will not deny the powerful performances of the two central actors. Halle Berry really steals the show in Losing Isaiah. The start of the film challenges her to capture the struggles of crack cocaine addiction with physical and mental dedication to the character, and soon after it plunges her into the depressing pits of being separated by her son. The following material develops this into showing her attempting to live a clean life before the familial themes are introduced to the film. Frankly there is a lot of changes Halle Berry's character experiences in Losing Isaiah, but the actress manages to keep developing throughout all of it which is extremely impressive. Even with her carless actions as a mother, it is a struggle to not sympathise with her much of the time because she really conveys the intense stress of a mother separated from a son she really loves. The fact that Halle Berry manages to grasp it with relentless dedication and tenacious depth makes Losing Isaiah an unforgettable experience. It is truly one of the best performances of her career, and she carries the heart of the film throughout many of its lesser moments with the instinctive acting talents that would later earn her a deserved Academy Award for Best Actress. Jessica Lange is also a predictably powerful actress. The material she faces isn't of the same calibre as Halle Berry, but the two-time Academy Award winning actress refuses to back down and delivers an extremely impassioned performance. Her effort is one of more restraint; emotional on an internal level as she struggles to comprehend the difficult situation she faces in the world. Slowly we see more irk its way out of her, and the realism in her performance is very respectable. Jessica Lange conveys a large amount of strong dedication to the material, and her presence is one of the best assets of the film. Samuel L. Jackson's presence is similarly genial. Losing Isaiah wrings powerful leading performances out of Halle Berry and Jessica Lange, but its edgy story relies more heavily on emotional melodrama than actual logic which creates an inconsistent experience that leads up to an incredibly unsatisfying ending.

Jessica Lange & Halle Berry were absolutely brilliant in this film in my humble opinion.

Invoking Drama, Explores Where The 'Best Interests' Of A Child Are Met..Or Lost. Asking Where We Go Wrong, Hard Decision To Call..There Could Have Been Better Character Development, But It Is What It Is..

It does get you thinking, maybe even angry. With all the drama going on, you wouldn't think it should look as pretty as it does. Halle Berry isn't too convincing as a crackhead, but it is nice to see her in a different light. The race issue seems somewhat contrived, but I suppose without it the film wouldn't have as much meat and controversy. It's an emotional and stirring story even if it does come off as perhaps too scripted.

To me, this was Halle Berry's best performance. The film is full of heart and soul from start to finish.

This movie was well done. Acting wise it was great and the story line was touching.

This was a great movie.

So sad! I cried a couple times. Very good acting and a great story.

"What an incredible performance from Halle Berry and Jessica Lange." It began to unravel itself by guiding us on a two sided roller coaster, After Berry made the worst mistake a parent could do... leave a child in a trash can during the coldest nights of winter. Left almost for dead, lange who works at the Hospital falls for the abandon child and plans to adopt. What appears to good to be true is just that. Berry under false assumption finds out her son is alive desides to fight for what's her's. Creating a tornado of fury and controversy. The tension begins to boil over, an argument about white people rearing colour childern, verse's Lange trying to prove colour is not an abstucal or a factor when you love a child and can offer stablility. The Director was brilliant by avoiding 1 sided opinion giving the audience a choice to chose what they believe is right.

The movie is very emotional especially by his two leads who manage to give more depth to the movie that it really has.The subject is complex and the racially charged overtone the movie used to explain adoption is rather poor especially as the child side is forgotten.In a way the racial aspect takes too much place and the feel good conclusion is not too easy.the film is still viewable and it must be said that hall berry has probably never give a better acting.for that alone It is a must see.

Sadd....very touching movie!!!

So very, very heart wrenching. People need to learn to see beyond color of skin.